


Porter sur toi un nouveau regard

by AlgernonInWonderland



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien is still our sunshine child though, Compulsory Heterosexuality, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fashion & Couture, Fencing, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, Kagami-centric, Lesbian Character, OR IS HE, Paris - Freeform, Post-Canon, Post-Episode: s03 Ikari Gozen, Romance, Season 4? Who is that?, Slice of Life, Too many feels, Yearning of the wlw variety, the character development we needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:54:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 106,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23656432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlgernonInWonderland/pseuds/AlgernonInWonderland
Summary: It takes only one glance for Kagami to decide that she won’t get along with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. She spends exactly one minute at the ice rink in her company and it’s all she needs to know the sort of person that girl is. She will never be more to her than a minor annoyance.Adrien is smart, a good fencer, he comes from a good family, he is soft spoken, he’s a model so obviously he is good looking, he has good manners, and though his Japanese is dreadful, he tries his best, better still, Mother approves of him. He is everything any girl her age could want.There is no doubting any of that, these things are set in stone.Until Kagami hesitates.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi
Comments: 200
Kudos: 679





	1. First Impressions

It takes only one glance for Kagami to decide that she won’t get along with Marinette Dupain-Cheng, and that what Adrien sees in her simply isn’t here. She spends exactly one minute at the ice rink in her company and it’s all she needs to know the sort of person that girl is, shy yet extremely loud, a complete klutz, so much so that it almost painful to look at her. And she’s weak-willed to boot. Even worse, Dupain Cheng somehow manages to make a fool of herself every time she tries to talk to Adrien. It’s a wonder the girl can stand on her own two feet right now, let alone do the same wearing ice-skates she can’t even tie properly. She needs to get a grip. The boy she has invited is too patient with her, and keeps holding her hand like she is a toddler. She certainly acts like one.

Kagami decides to stop stealing glances at her and to focus on Adrien and Adrien only, he is the reason she has come in the first place, and Dupain-Cheng’s presence — and that other boy with the weird hair colour, Luke, she thinks?— is incidental. They hold hands as they skate, and she’d like to say that she can feel his warmth, but with these gloves on, she can hardly sense a thing. Though Adrien doesn’t try to be extravagant like that taller boy (in fact he hardly tries to do anything), he can handle himself just fine. But he never keeps his eyes on her for very long. Does she… Bore him already? He tells the most blatant lie, she shows him a few figures and jumps to impress him, and that would seem to do the trick. And then Marinette Dupain Cheng falls over.

Which was bound to happen at some point, obviously, but then the two boys rush to her side, that annoying instructor interrupts them, and Dupain-Cheng won’t get up on her own. She shows no sign of hurt, the worst thing that could have happened to her would have been a sprained ankle but she just looks stunned, confused that both boys are holding our their hands to help her up. Kagami still doesn’t like her, but they could stay in that position for an hour if that girl can’t make up her mind, and she’ll fall even more often if she keeps freezing like that, if Adrien has to be there for her all the time… And with What’s His Name mooning over her, the choice should be easy to make, his feeling for her are crystal clear. And Dupain-Cheng still isn't choosing. Kagami holds out her hand.

“Get up,” she says, as she helps the girl back to her feet, and she has to keep her voice in check, to not let her annoyance show. “The only reason you can’t stay on your feet is your hesitation. I never hesitate.”

The rest of the day is disappointing, a big part of her afternoon is a blur, she only remembers feeling cold and waking up some time later. They leave the ice rink soon after that. Though she has followed every step of the advice from the books and magazines Mother has bought her (“I am your fencing instructor, not your confidante, if you need advice, you should find it all here”) it is getting her nowhere. Not even that kiss on the cheek the French are apparently fond of seems to work, and if she has to be frank, she can’t say she enjoys it all that much. But it is normal, she can’t expect it to be good right away. She will try again some other day, there will be a time and a place for that, and hopefully no one to distract Adrien.

* * *

After that, Kagami still sees Dupain-Cheng from time to time. It never lasts more than a few seconds, she’s never close enough for Kagami to get a good look at her, but it is obvious it’s her, spying on M. D’Argencourt’s fencing classes, hiding behind lampposts, bins and cardboard boxes. It could almost be funny, were it not so… Bizarre. Kagami comes to the conclusion that she shouldn’t let that bother her in the slightest, perhaps this is just the way Dupain-Cheng is, and what's more Adrien barely notices her. Kagami keeps the rose he has given her in her journal. No one has ever gifted her flowers before. She cherishes it, and every object she can get her hands on that reminds her of their bond.

And then comes that premiere Mother insists they should go to. Of course, Dupain-Cheng’s parents have been hired for the occasion, which isn’t all that odd considering their reputation. What is unexpected is that Dupain-Cheng herself is a waitress. The outfit is cute, but she is so clumsy it’s almost like she is doing it on purpose when she falls over with that platter, and of course it all has to be some elaborate plan to get closer to Adrien and give him a single macaron. And then Kagami gets gum stuck to her grandmother’s getas, and all the chairs have macaron crumbs on them, and it can’t be a coincidence. Dupain-Cheng is nowhere to be seen, neither is that brat Bourgeois, conveniently enough. If she could find the blonde, she would glare at her with such intensity she'd vanish out of existence.

On the bright side of things, Mother finally meets Adrien, and she is certain it was the entire point of their being here today. Then the film’s director get akumatised. She blocks the memory out. When the screening begins, at last, Dupain-Cheng has found a way to seat next to Adrien. The film is mediocre at best, the visuals could be engaging but they are inconsistent, the story and the soundtrack are barely serviceable, the characters are lacking. It certainly didn’t deserve all the attention and media coverage it got. When it is over, Adrien tells her it’s nice to have her by his side. She is glad to have him to keep her company.

But things move too slowly, and she must have missed a step again, because she is not daydreaming about kissing Adrien as often as she should be. And she clearly should be at this point. He matches every one of her criteria, he is smart, a good fencer, he comes from a good family, he is soft spoken, he’s a model so obviously he is good looking, he has good manners, and though his Japanese is dreadful, he tries his best. Mother approves of him, she has even encouraged her in her efforts and provided her with even more books and magazines to ensure she won’t fail. When she sees that picture of Adrien with that other girl, her blood boils, Hawk Moth offers her vengeance, and the next thing she remembers, Chat Noir is carrying her back to her flat. Mother hardly talks about it. Adrien doesn’t seem to know what has happened.

Life goes on, and nothing changes. She tries to initiate things with the boy she is meant to be in love with by now, to touch him more, to kiss him on the cheek at every occasion she gets, because touching the person you love is supposed to… What is the precise sentence again? To light a fire in the pit of her stomach? Something like that. And she must be doing it wrong, because she doesn’t enjoy the flirting and the touching all that much, it is a lot more fun to fence with him, or to help him with his homework — he doesn’t really need it, he goes to school to see is friends is all—than it is to act romantic around him. But this isn’t how things are supposed to be going, and that is all her fault.

* * *

And so she tries harder. She skips fencing class alongside Adrien. Where they are going doesn’t matter as long as they are together, even if it is a brightly-coloured houseboat and not a museum or someplace prestigious. Even if Dupain-Cheng is here. Calling her by her family name won’t do, it would ruin the mood.And since she seemed to be having so much fun with What’s His Name, who is probably her boyfriend at this point, this should make things easier. Just in case he isn’t, she better call him that, at least for Dup… For Marinette to get the message. She can’t recall the words that leave her mouth, or what the girl replies, only that she almost gets second-hand embarrassment. She takes Adrien’s arm, that seems to make Dupain-Cheng jump out of her skin.

The other people seem nice, she couldn’t name them all but she recognises Alya, who runs the Ladyblog, and Rose and Juleka who were on pictures with Adrien. They seem awfully close to each other, much closer than regular schoolmates would be… Girlfriends? They look very happy together, and Kagami can’t explain why but there is that cold, miserable feeling of emptiness in her chest for a second. She shrugs it off. There is the daughter of that museum curator, too, if she isn’t mistaken…That’s about it in terms of familiar faces. Everyone here, everyone but Luka — that’s what he’s called, she’s sure now— goes to the same school so they all know each other. Adrien doesn’t introduce her to any of them, and they all seem… Wary of her?

Reaching out, talking to people with hobbies completely different from hers isn’t easy. She almost feels like an intruder in the middle of them all, some unwanted presence. She doesn’t want to make herself more conspicuous than she already is, and so she keeps her composure and her mouth shut when she isn’t invited to talk. Which is to say, almost all the time. When she leaves the houseboat, she feels lonelier than she has ever felt in her entire life. But that would be a ridiculous thing to put in her journal, wouldn’t it? She leaves that part out, and most of what happened. Wanting for more friends is a foolish thing, it won’t make her win more competitions. Where, how would she meet them anyway?

* * *

It’s almost like the universe has decided to answer her question personally. She is fencing with Adrien when he tells her the news. In two and a half weeks, he will be participating to a game show that encourages cooperation between the participants, a kind of Friendship Day thing months before the actual date. He can’t tell her more, it would spoil the fun, but apparently, as he puts it, he will be the final prize. That is only the icing on the cake. As soon as Kagami gets home, she gathers all the magazines she can find and flips through the pages until she finds the “friendship” sections. She even downloads an app. She learns everything by heart, with more dedication than she has ever shown for her geography homework — it’s not her fault the tutors are bores, in Tokyo _and_ Paris— and rehearses in front of her mirror when Mother isn’t within earshot.

If she were to get caught, she can only imagine the consequences. It has never happened before, because there wasn’t anything to hide, but now… It doesn’t matter, if she succeeds it will have been worth it. She is the first person to sign up for the game, and she makes sure to keep Mother distracted for a handful of seconds, just in time to get to the mailbox and grab the badge they’ve sent her, she puts it in a shoe box under her bed. All the built-up stress, she releases it by giving her best during their kendo and sabre lessons. Not that it changes the outcome, she loses each and every time, and she isn’t quite sure she can call them lessons if she gets nothing out of them but a few more bruises on her arms and shoulders. Still, all is going accordingly to plan, so far, and she intends to keep it that way.

She can barely find sleep the night before. What will this new person be like? Will they get along? She really hopes it’ll be someone her age, who won’t make too big a deal about her being Japanese. She hopes she won’t forget all that she’s learned, and that all that knowledge will come in handy. She couldn’t practice with a real person, but that will work nevertheless, right? Now is not the time to question her decisions. If she is teamed up with someone she dislikes, at least she’ll have tried. Always better than to stay at home and think of what could have been. She feels well-rested when she wakes up that morning. The sun is barely up, and the noise coming from the kitchen tell her that the cook processor is almost done preparing their food for the day. When Father invents a new one, she’ll suggest she makes it less noisy. As if he had the time to read her letters. No time to brood on that, there is a brand new day waiting for her.

Any normal family would have breakfast together in the kitchen, perhaps laze around for a little while since it is so early, or go back to bed, but not them. Like every Saturday, they have breakfast in the car on their way to the Jardin des Tuileries, and so they do, already wearing their Kendo gear. The schedule is the same as always, the usual warm-up followed kendo fencing, after which Mother will go out again while she is sent back to the flat. This is when she gets the text that tells her that the game is about to begin, and some forty-five minutes later another one, a riddle that will lead her to her new friend. Seems easy enough, she may even make it home before Mother returns.

Running while wearing her _hakama_ isn’t the most practical thing, but this is the way Mother wants it to be, and so it is. At least she no longer has to wear full armour as she does so. Kagami has to fight back the need to steal glances at her phone every other minute. She is being is irrational, of course there’s no text yet, won’t be for another hour and a half at least. They stretch, and Mother claps her hands, which is the sigh that she wants her to get back inside the car to put on the rest of her gear. Kagami obliges. No message, again, but at least she knows that. She puts on her gear quickly, the _tare_ comes first around her waist, then the _do_ to protect her chest, the _men_ for her head, at last the _kote_ , that will make it all very impractical to hold of anything other than her _shinai_. Mother doesn’t need to wear any armour, doesn’t need to, the day Kagami manages to actually score a touch against her has yet to come.

Kendo with Mother is repetitive, and always a humiliating experience. She is aware of her progress over the years, but all she can do against this formidable opponent is try to put off the moment when she is forced to yield. She can’t say she is proud of her performance, but it’s hard to focus fully on kendo, when there is a clock ticking in your mind. She has to get back on her feet more times than she would have wanted to, without any helping hand or words of encouragement, but she is certain this will end in a few minutes, and then she’ll be able to proceed with her plan. Perhaps that clock of hers is broken, the lesson isn’t over after all. Well, what difference could a handful of minutes make anyway?

Of course this is the moment her phone decides to ring, the noise is muffled by her _do_ , but she hears it still. And Mother too, right in the middle of yet another of her tirades about samurais, honour and how she needs to be better. They stop for her to check her phone nevertheless. And of course she has forgotten to turn off the text-to-speech function. Oh, brilliant. She didn’t think she’d have to resort to lying but she does so anyway. This means too much to her to let it all go to waste because of a fluke.

“No, Mother, that… Must be a mistake…”

Mother doesn’t look convinced, but doesn’t say anything, and with that the lesson is over. It’s a relief to be able to take off all that heavy armour, and though she gets a few stares as they walk out the park’s gates, it’s better than having to do so with her _men_ on. Now is time for phase two of her plan. She brings up Adrien participating to the game, lets Mother ramble just in time to record her voice command — of course, Father had to design that car to only answer one person’s orders with that key word— and she gets exactly what she wants.She nods politely when Mother asks her to be done with her homework when she returns, in two, no, three hours. That, Kagami has already taken care of. Mother is the first to get out, in front of the Grand Palais, and then it’s her turn. She lets the car drop her off in front of her apartment building, hurries inside, all but drops her kendo gear and rushes to the bathroom. She doesn’t want to be a sweaty mess when she meets whoever she’ll be paired with.

She is back in her regular old school uniform, formal enough to make a good first impression but not too formal, when she goes to the kitchen to have lunch even though she is an hour early for that — thanks for taking care of our meals, fully-automated house— with a towel wrapped around her head. When her phone buzzes, she all but pounces on it. A riddle. It takes seconds for her to solve. There is no time to waste, her new friend might live close to Canal Saint Martin, she’d hate to make them wait. Phase three of her masterplan has begun. She makes sure she looks flawless before getting in the car, retrieves her badge from the shoebox under her bed. Traffic is surprisingly good, she gets to the location in a matter of minutes. The good thing with these tinted glass windows is, no one can tell that she is drumming her fingers and doing her breathing exercises to keep calm. She is perfectly composed when she gets out of the car.

* * *

The good news is, Canal Saint Martin isn’t too crowded, which will make it easier to spot her game partner. The bad news is, she spots that person right away and she knows this is going to make things a lot more difficult. And it had to be Dupain-Cheng, talking to herself on the other side of the water, wagging her finger and stomping her foot and just… Walking away and then not? This is taking quirkiness to a whole new level. But she can’t back away now, and since she might get caught by Mother, she better make it worthwhile and win that silly game, if nothing more. Marinette approaches her with an unconvincing smile, gesticulations and lies about how she thought her game buddy was somewhere else.

Her wanting to take part to the game seems genuine, however. Perhaps that could bring them closer together? If Marinette seems so keen on participating, if she is so bad at solving riddles, perhaps fishing for clues would make her more comfortable? That’d allow them to chat as they do so. A month back, she had no idea how to talk to other people as someone else than her mother’s daughter, the great fencer, but now… Now is time to put all her theoretical knowledge into practice. They reach the Pont des Arts and sure enough, here is the fishing rod and Marinette catches up with her at last. The next clue is in the water, and they are exactly where they need to be, where Kagami needs Marinette to be. Phase four is go. She checks her app just to be sure; she hardly needs to.

Are her questions… Weird? Marinette always makes faces when they talk. Is this not how it works in France? Kagami tries to smile but it does’t quite reach her eyes, and she might be overdoing it. No good, she has studied this for weeks, this is just her mind playing tricks on her, self-doubt is the first step to defeat. Was it a good idea to call Marinette’s hair “shiny”? It looks nice, but “shiny” might not have been the best adjective. She fills in her compatibility app with the information she got, even though… Blood type and Zodiac sign, really? But it must be here for a reason. And does she really have to pat her on the shoulder?It… Doesn’t feel unpleasant, but she is too stiff, and so is Marinette. She’ll refrain from trying that again in the near future.

Whoever came up with these riddles is either a five year old or wrote them with an audience of kindergarteners in mind, Kagami decides as they hurry from clue to clue. And yet, her game partner is struggling to understand them and to spot these conspicuous cardboard boxes, which is odd considering how she was able to come up with a whole story on the spot a little earlier. Perhaps it’s all that walking that is making her light-headed. Either way, the plan is going surprisingly well, considering it’s Marinette she is talking about. Sure, there’s that underlying sense of awkwardness in everything they do together, but all that learning might just pay off! Maybe. Or maybe not. Time is running out and she isn’t sure she has gotten any closer to the girl.

And then comes the Trust Challenge, selfie-taking in front of monuments with each other’s phones and then take a group photo. Seems simple, easier than any of the other challenges. Their phones are the same model, funnily enough. Marinette’s wallpaper is a picture of her with her friends, which is cute. She has installed too many apps, including but not only one for learning Mandarin, a kind of game with a penguin, Amstramgram of course, another app used to signal akumas to other users… She shouldn’t snoop around and look at the pictures she has taken, no matter how tempting. She’ll just take the picture in front of the Luxor Obelisk, find Adrien, have orange juice with her new friend, or perhaps just go home once this is all over.

Selfies, or at the very least her own selfies, are the worse . There’s nothing exceptional about her appearance, and being the focus of that photograph, especially when the obelisk itself is much more interesting than her, is silly. Aaaaaand… Marinette just got a new message, and she can’t make that notification go away. It’s a swipe to the left, isn’t it? Apparently not, she’s just managed to open it somehow. It’s a message from Alya, and she doesn’t know how to stop it from playing. When it’s over, she can’t explain it fully but she’s glad she has heard it. The swirl of emotions in her chest is overwhelming, indescribable, but she can’t let it get to her. She knew it, it was blatant Dupain-Cheng didn’t want anything to do with her. There is proof of that at last. Her being an airhead makes sense now, this was just her trying to sabotage their group effort to ensure they wouldn’t meet with Adrien. Dupain-Cheng had no interest in making new friends in the first place, she only ever cared about Adrien.

Kagami isn’t mad at that girl as much as she is at herself. She should have seen the signs, she should have known better, those stupid apps and magazines and books just don’t help, of course they don’t otherwise there wouldn’t be so many of them in the first place, and she followed them blindly like the idiot she is. Who would want to be friends with her anyway? She is too blunt, too cold, she almost never smiles in a way that feels genuine, there is nothing interesting going on in her outside of kendo and sabre fencing, and she has only made one friend thanks to that. She doesn’t watch TV or films, she doesn’t play video games, she only listens to classical music and jazz… It was bound to fail from the very start.

The Jardin des Tuileries is almost empty when she returns, Dupain-Cheng is waiting for her, with something in her eyes that might be regret? Or is it pity? Concern? Is she afraid she’ll get yelled at? Kagami just might, but that would be beneath her, the girl is not worth that much energy. Instead, she bottles up her anger, hands back the phone to its owner and says something about blood types; she doesn’t believe a single word of it, but it’s always better than making a scene. She doesn’t look back. She’ll just walk home, calm down, and act like that none of this ever happened. Today is already awful enough as it is, there’s no need to make it worse. At least she won’t have to worry about finishing her homework in time, she’ll even tidy up her room to take her mind off all of this.

What is Dupain-Cheng screaming her name for? Kagami turns around just in case, and her stomach sinks. She is having a conversation with Mother. Marinette Dupain-Cheng is talking on the phone with Mother. The phone she had forgotten to take back.

And Marinette Dupain-Cheng is covering up for her.

Sure, she is making the story up as she goes, but other than that it’s almost like she’s a completely different person. It’s evident she’s choosing the best words to not infuriate Mother any further, she has clearly decided whose side to take. And Kagami can’t understand why. They barely know each other, it’s obvious the girl sees her as a rival of some sorts, she all but tried to have her take a train for England moments ago. But Marinette remembers about that silly orange juice remark from earlier, she even calls her a friend. At that, Kagami is surprised to find herself smiling. That girl… There’s really more to her than her crush on Adrien, her indecisiveness and her overcomplicated plans, isn't it? She can see it now. It would be easy to forget the situation they’re in. Marinette’s expression turns from a frown to that of fear which can only mean that the call has just ended very poorly.

“I’m sorry,” she says as she gives Kagami back her phone, “I really did try to smooth things over but I think your mum’s super duper angry now and will be looking for you. I actually think you might wanna hide someplace where she won’t find you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir, tout le monde!
> 
> Here we are, on our way to a multi-chapter Marigami! I'll be delving into comphet quite a bit and yes, that means having some Adrigami thrown in. But hey, it'll turn out okay, I promise.
> 
> In the meantime, if you want updates on this fic or the other things I write, why don't you visit my [Tumblr? (clikety click)](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com)
> 
> I'll be seeing you for the next one, in exactly a week!


	2. Hesitation

There is a lot for Kagami to write about in her journal that night, but she feels too exhausted for any of that, and besides she’s got other things in mind that would distract her from writing. Mother is giving her the silent treatment, which made dinner all the more awkward. It’s the first time she has disobeyed on purpose, so of course that was to be expected. Perhaps the reason she hasn’t been grounded yet is that Mother has yet to come up with a proper punishment. It doesn’t worry her all that much, after all that she’s faced this afternoon. Being a hero, if only for… Well, not even an hour, working alongside Ladybug (and Chat Noir to a lesser extent), that was quite the experience. But this isn’t the memory she’ll cherish the most. If she could only remember one thing about the way her day went, it would the memory of her sharing that glass of orange juice with Marinette. Her phone buzzes, and she closes the journal just to check.

**8:55PM**

**Marinette:** _hi! i just wanna make sure everythings alright and apologise for the way ive acted around you all that time… whatcha up to?_

It must look silly for an outside observer, Kagami reflects, she’s on her bed, grinning at her phone. She forces herself to wait for a minute, answering right away makes for a bad impression, she doesn’t want to seem desperate, and though all these apps and magazines were mostly terrible, the texting etiquette seems to be one of the least unhelpful parts. Having someone to chat with is new, and a little exciting, that probably explains why her heart is speeding up. She didn’t expect the other girl to text her so quickly, they’ve only exchanged numbers a couple of hours ago. Her fingers hovers over the “send” icon for a few seconds, she reads her message again just to make sure there aren’t any mistakes in there. This should be good enough for now, she decides.

**8:58PM**

**Kagami:** _Hello! I appreciate your apologies but I have forgiven you already. Everything is fine, and I hope you are well too. Currently, I am trying to figure out what book to read for the next few days. Would you have any suggestions? What are you up to?_

* * *

From that day on, her training gets harsher, she has to wake up earlier every morning and Mother gets stricter than before, if this is even possible. That, Kagami had seen coming, and the constant threat that her phone will get taken away if she underperforms. What is unexpected, however, is Mother’s greater involvement when it comes to her love life. They go to all the galas and premieres and exhibition openings they are invited to, no matter what is is, as long as it means the Agrestes are invited as well. When they have breakfast together, Mother asks how things are going between the two of them, if Adrien has another girlfriend, if they have kissed yet. It is a little embarrassing, but it is a much needed reminder that she needs to make some efforts if she wants the two of them to be more than friends.

The truth is, Kagami hasn’t thought about how to make Adrien fall for her in quite some time, there are other things in her mind. Like that new book she has borrowed at the library, the latest Oscar Hancock record… and Marinette. It’s not like they’re texting each other all the time, or seeing each other all the time, after all, they are both busy with their own things. Still, Marinette stops spying on her and Adrien from a distance when they are fencing, and asks M. D’Argencourt if she can watch instead. More often than not, she ends up walking Kagami home. It’s nice, having someone to talk to, to tell them about your day. There are some things Marinette may not understand completely, Mother’s parenting style, what it means to be born into a family like hers and all the things that come with it… Yet none of this feels too important when they are together. She tries to tone done the flirting with Adrien, they hardly mention him.

“Would you want to meet some of my other friends someday?” Marinette once asks as Kagami takes out the keys to her flat. “I had a really long conversation with Alya to try to fix things up but I totally understand if you don’t want to—”

“Yes,” Kagami cuts in, and she might sound a little too enthusiastic because Marinette’s smile is wider than it usually is. “I’d like that,” she adds as she tries to regain her composure.

“I know we’ll figure out a date that’ll suit your mum,” Marinette says, and with that she gives Kagami’s shoulder a small squeeze.

Easier said than done. It takes days of negotiating with Mother and a promise to ask Adrien and his father to have dinner with them — not that she minds that, on the contrary— but still, on a late Thursday afternoon, she finds herself having grape juice on one of the Couffaine houseboat’s many stools, with Rose, Mylène, Alix, Alya and Marinette while Juleka, Nino, Luka and Adrien are having an impromptu jam session. It’s a bit different from the usual Kitty Section repertoire, and though she won’t say it out loud, Kagami thinks it’s for the best. Juleka’s singing voice is easier on the ears than her girlfriend’s screaming, Nino’s machine drums blend in nicely with Adrien’s keyboard and Luka’s bass. Marinette is almost drooling over these two.

It goes well, much better than the first time, agesago, and Kagami cannot express how happy that makes her. It isn’t perfect, Alya gives her wary stares when she dares even breathe in Adrien’s direction, and Marinette is a stuttering mess whenever she talks to him, she decides not to pay too much attention to either of those things and to enjoy herself instead. She finds out that she is an okay tarot player despite never having played before, that Alix is a sore loser and that nothing seems to phase Luka. “You can come back anytime,” Mme Couffaine says when she has to get home at last. Walking home is out of the question if she wants to make it in time, and so. Adrien drops her off in front of her house. She kisses him on the cheek and he returns the favour. It’s not unpleasant. If Mother could see, she would be proud of her. They come up with a date and place for that meal with the Agrestes, and send a very formal letter the very next morning. M. Agreste’s answer is positive.

But Kagami isn’t anticipating this as much as she is wondering about what makes Marinette so secretive. That adjective wasn’t one she ever expected to associate with her friend, especially when she was only Dupain-Cheng to her, but here she is, wondering how come Marinette disappears for hours sometimes, cancels their plans at the last minute or doesn’t answer her texts until very late in the evening with lots of apologies — not that she needs to apologise for anything, Kagami tells her one night— and terrible spelling. Sometimes, she shows up with dark rings under her eyes; it doesn’t make her any less pretty, Kagami thinks, but it is a little worrying. She is almost sure it isn’t because Marinette is doing drugs or dating Luka, or both, at least she doesn’t seem like the sort of person who would do that. Is she ill and refuses to tell anyone about it? Is someone blackmailing her family?

All questions that will stay unanswered. Kagami, on the other hand, keeps very few things secret from her new friend. Lying will never be her forte. Isn’t any good relationship based on trust anyway? She tells Marinette about that dinner date the very evening she gets the letter, over the telephone. It goes better than expected. Marinette doesn’t sound ecstatic about it but that was to be expected. Her tone softens when she hears that M. Agreste will be there too and that it was all Mother’s idea, not hers. This is a kind of rivalry between friends, she supposes. How cliché. Marinette couldn’t make her change her mind on dating Adrien if she wanted to, because _he_ is everything she’s ever wanted. Right?

These terrible magazines and books have proven to be useless, but eavesdropping on Alya and the other girls at the houseboat gave her better advice when it comes to romance, and this time she has done her homework, she is ready. None of her preparation helps. It isn’t to say that their restaurant rendezvous is terrible, but M. Agreste is staring at her all the time with dead eyes like he is waiting for her to do something wrong, Mother is gripping her glass of wine with more strength than is strictly necessary. Shecompliments Adrien’s suit and when he pulls Kagami’s chair out for her, there is a slight blush on his cheeks. She finds it nice of him, very gentlemanly, but her heart still won’t go pitter patter like it is supposed to. He is slowly falling for her, so why isn’t that making her truly happy? This isn’t the worst Friday in her life, but it leaves a bitter taste in her mouth.

* * *

“You’re skipping fencing practice and coming to my house, with me,” Marinette tells her brightly the next Monday afternoon, as she is about to get inside Collège François Dupont for fencing practice. “I have asked Nino to give Adrien precise instructions, M. D’Argencourt will think that you’re having insomnias and are too tired to give your best today, and since it’ll have come from Adrien, he’ll just buy it. ”

There is no arguing with that logic, this is good planning, and it’s true that she hasn’t been sleeping all that well. Kagami can’t explain why, but she feels more guilty following Marinette than when she and Adrien had done the same thing. They take Marinette’s bike, she sits behind, wraps her arms around the other girl’s waist just to make sure she won’t fall off. For someone so clumsy, her friend certainly knows how to dodge cars and pedestrians who can’t tell where the cycle lane is. Holding her like that… It feels… Good? Probably because there is a sense of safety in grabbing onto something when you’re on a moving object, she rationalises. It’s a relatively short trip. Marinette apparently isn’t a very punctual person when it comes to going to school school in the morning, but if she rode her bike there she could sleep a few more minutes.

The photographs don’t make the bakery justice. Kagami has to stop herself from staring at the windows and to breathe in the smell. Even though she’s had lunch not even four hours ago, she feels like she could enjoy an éclair or two. It’s a good thing it is far from her flat because otherwise she’d go there all the time, and spending her small monthly allowance on pastries doesn’t seem like the ideal thing to do. Marinette waves at her parents from the other side of the glass window, Kagami does the same. Once the door is unlocked — cute keyring, certainly handmade— they go up a flight of steps, take off their shoes and here they are in the Dupain-Chengs’ living room. It looks… Lived in. It’s easy to imagine the three of them sitting around the table for breakfast, playing video games on the couch…

Kagami had pictured Marinette’s room once or twice before, when they weren’t friend. It had been easy to imagine a messy, dark place with a candle-lit shrine dedicated to Adrien and another to Luka, charts and timetables for the two of them. Of course it is nothing like that. There are a handful of pictures of Adrien but no shrine, it is quite clean — has she tidied it up for her?— and the view from her window is amazing. On a corner of the room is a dummy, wearing a kind of white outfit with visible red stitching, a kind of prototype, she supposes. There is a sort of terrace rooftop that can be accessed through the skylight, the weather is a little too windy to go there right now but it must be lovely on sunny days.

“Make yourself at home,” Marinette says as she unpacks her bag. “You can sit anywhere you’d like and put your bag… Wherever. Do you wanna have tea and biscuits? Or maybe you want orange juice, I can squeeze a few…”

“Are you not going to ask me about Friday?” Kagami raises her eyebrow as she eyes the chaise longue. This is why she’s here, isn’t it?

“You would have told me if you’d wanted to,” Marinette replies. “So either it went really bad or it went so well you still have to… Err, process it, I guess? No, I’ve kidnapped you because you’re my friend and you sounded glum in our last messages and you could really use a break from time to time.”

“Oh.” Kagami just blinks. Her voice is small when she adds, “thank you for kidnapping me, then.” The chaise longue is just as comfortable as it looks.

“Alya will be there in about fifteen minutes, and maybe Nino too, we’ll be playing _Really Dance 4_ … You can join us if you want, or just stay upstairs if you prefer that? They’ll understand.”

“I’ve never played the game, but I’m a fast learner,” Kagami answers after some time. “And tea and biscuits sounds great, can I help?”

“Yeah, no, you stay right where you are, I’ll be right back,” Marinette says. She gives Kagami’s shoulder a squeeze before she leaves the room.

No wonder the bakery is so sought after whenever there is some kind of important event somewhere in Paris, these financiers are to die for, and the tea is perfectly brewed. They enjoy their mid-afternoon snack in peaceful silence until the doorbell rings. Marinette gets up from her desk chair, hurries downstairs and returns with Alya and Nino. They are much nicer and open with her than whenever Adrien is around. Perhaps she could make them her friends someday, Kagami decides, and not “Marinette’s friends who do things with her sometimes without really being all that close”. Maybe this is why Marinette has invited them, why they’re doing things together rather than just talk. No matter how undignified and childlike the things may be.

But pride has no place here and so she condescends to take part in the game. _Really Dance 4_ is almost as exhausting as fencing practice, and for once Kagami isn’t number one at a physical activity, not even second best. It’s not her fault she has only been trained in classical ballet for a few years, or that her leg movement isn’t recorded by the console, or that she hasn’t even heard most of these songs. Alya crushes them all, Marinette is pretty good, better than her, that much can’t be denied, Nino’s sense of tempo isn’t bad but he is too stiff. She finishes third most of the time. Surprisingly enough, it doesn’t upset her. It’s just mindless fun., there’s no one to rub her every mistake in her face. She makes it back to the Collège just in time for the car to take her home, thanks to Marinette’s bike again. Mother doesn’t suspect a thing.

This too becomes a habit of theirs, having Kagami skip fencing classes from time to time. She works out an arrangement with M. D’Argencourt so that she’ll be able to practice with some of his older students whenever she misses a lesson. It is more challenging, obviously, and Mother approves of her newfound ambition. She has no idea her daughter isn’t at Françoise Dupont every Monday and Wednesday, and it is for the best. They go to Marinette’s house, or to the Couffaine houseboat or wherever else Marinette wants to take her to. Sometimes, they are with other friends of Marinette’s, sometimes it is just the two of them. Kagami likes the latter the most.Just walking hand in hand with Marinette, sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally, and discovering Paris with her is enough to make her happy.

After days and days of gathering clues and watching how, whenever Hawk Moth decides to terrorise the city, Marinette always finds a way to disappear, Kagami is sure she has found out her friend’s secret. She has been traumatised by one of these attacks and each new one trigger some sort of flight response from her. It makes sense, it fits with her akuma alert app, her not answering to anyone’s texts when Paris in under attack, her tiredness the day after yet another of Hawk Moth’s thwarted attempts at taking Ladybug and Chat Noir’s Miraculouses. It doesn’t really explain why she seems so level-headed every time she runs away, but she is sure there is some psychological subtlety in all of that. Or perhaps she is wrong and Marinette’s secret is something else entirely.

* * *

And then comes the celebration of Audrey and André Bourgeois’ anniversary in their tacky, tasteless hotel. No wonder Chloé Bourgeois turned out the way she did with parents like these, how are they even together? All of Paris’ prestigious names have been invited, or so she’s been told. It’s awfully boring, hardly a party despite all the decorating. M. Agreste is making his speech terrible on purpose, or perhaps he truly isn’t good at public speaking… Adrien is here of course, which is a relief, but they are all but forced to sit on that awful couch with Mother and Adrien’s bodyguard — she’ll nickname him Gorilla, not original but descriptive enough —sandwiching them. Which doesn’t allow them to chat freely, or to do anything at all. She can’t even wave at M. Dupain and Mme Cheng without the certainty that Mother will call her behaviour shameful and below her rank. Marinette arrives, and her clumsiness saves them all from another boring hour or two of waiting and saying nothing.

Marinette, master of schemes and lying for a good cause, her saviour… They sneak out without getting noticed, and there is a kind of childish pleasure in doing the exact opposite of what you’ve been asked to that makes Kagami want to giggle like a schoolgirl. And she just might do that. She has never been in a ball pool before. She doesn’t wait for anyone to grab her hand, she can already hear the bodyguard’s heavy footsteps. This isn’t the first time she does something Mother wouldn’t approve of, but if she gets caught today, she probably won’t see the end of it. It adds a thrill to it all. She glances at Marinette, and they have a nod of understanding. They jump, and Adrien follows a mere second after them.

What is supposed to be a mere hiding place turns into a playground as soon as the Gorilla disappears. It’s all Marinette’s fault, she’s the one to cast the first stone… Well, plastic ball. Adrien is missing on purpose, which means it’d be unfair to attack him. Marinette’s marksmanship, on the other hand, is not bad at all. But Kagami can fight dirty. You can’t exactly dunk someone underwater in a ball pool. However you can easily grab your opponent by the ankle and make them lose their balance. Kagami does exactly that. When Marinette resurfaces, her hair is down. Her laughter is contagious.

“The coast looks clear,” Adrien whispers, and with that he walks to the piano.

Kagami follows him there. It really is an amazing rooftop, with a view on Notre Dame and all of Paris. And now, to perfect the picture, they get to have a very private private concert with an audience of two. She wouldn’t call herself a connoisseur when it comes to piano outside of jazz, nonetheless she can tell Adrien is quite good, a little out of practice, perhaps; that doesn’t keep him from enjoying himself, she can hear it in the way he plays, and it’s all that matters. She glances over at the pool. Marinette has retrieved her scrunchies at last… Such a shame she doesn’t keep her hair down, it looks much better like that. The pigtails are cute, but they also make her seem younger than she really is, more childish somehow, definitely not fifteen.

“Your hair looks beautiful,” Kagami says, and she wishes she hadn’t decided to stand behind the piano.

It’s not just her hair. Perhaps she has always known it, perhaps she is only realising it now, but Marinette may just be the most beautiful girl she has ever met. It could be a trick of the light, but she is almost sure Marinette is blushing. Her stomach does a somersault at that, she barely hears Adrien agreeing with her. What she does hear, however, is the sound the lift makes as it goes up. They duck under the piano, and predictably enough, the Gorilla is back, and still looking for them. He is either the worst bodyguard on earth or letting them get away on purpose. Either way, Marinette’s ingenuity saves them again, and they are out of the Grand Paris before anyone can stop them. Adrien leads the way at first. It is too beautiful a day to be trapped in this gloomy place with these hateful people. They run until they are out of breath.

It’s only then that Marinette turns into the voice of reason. As Adrien puts it aptly, it’s not everyday they can escape from what is expected of them. There is a portly man on the Canal Saint Martin bridge, singing the name of his business. Adrien is a regular, or so it seems. “The sweethearts’ ice cream maker,” the man calls himself, and there is that urban legend about… Well, it sounds too silly to be true, too cliché. Adrien is right though, ice cream does sound appealing, not quite enough for a lunch, definitely a good start. Or so she thinks. André talks in rhymes, because of course he does. It is a little comforting to hear that he thinks she and Adrien make the perfect pairing. Apparently, Marinette and Adrien are opposites that attract?

“Orange and a blackberry…”

Wait, is he talking about… Marinette and her? She must have misheard. And yet she cannot help but look at her and smile.

“Quite unusual it’s true, not the most obvious but it works for you two.”

She isn’t sure what this means, and the choice André is asking them to make… She would decide easily, Adrien, in the blink of an eye, because this is how things are meant to be, it just can’t go wrong between them, this would be the opportunity to become even closer to the boy, to kiss him like she is meant to. The setting is perfect for that, the weather as well. But… It would mean leaving Marinette behind. And now, making up her mind isn’t so easy anymore. Adrien is too polite to say what he really thinks. This should be for Marinette to decide, she is the one who decided to sneak them out, after all. Or they could simply walk away. It’s a cruel choice to make. Kagami knows she isn’t a coward, Mother has even called her reckless once or twice, she has faced a giant monster and lived. What Marinette might answer terrifies her. She doesn’t let it show.

“Look, I think your first idea was the best,” Marinette tells André. “The orange and peppermint ice cream for… For my friends there.”

Kagami can feel something tightening in her chest. This should be perfect. This should make her happy, she has won, Adrien is hers and hers only. But Marinette won’t even meet her eyes as she starts walking away, her voice comes out constrained, a hint of forced cheerfulness that doesn’t work well at all. Kagami wants to reach out, to take her by the hand before she can leave, she wants to tell her that they can forget about the ice-cream and go back to the palace with her if she so badly needs to help her parents. It’s no use, Marinette’s shape is already getting smaller and smaller in the distance, her shoulders are shaking slightly. She wants to run after her but Adrien’s voice reminds her of the situation. He is so… Clueless, about what has just happened it’s almost disarming. She has to think of something else. Aren’t their surroundings great for a date? The perfect spring day. Adrien is here, happy to be with her, he doesn’t want to go check on Marinette, he wants to be with her and her only, now is her chance. Her mind is playing the same thoughts over and over like a broken record, isn’t it?

They find a spot near the edge of the canal and start eating. She has to admit, her mood lightens up after the first spoonful of orange ice cream. André has earned his fame, though the two flavours don’t match all that well, she isn’t that fond of peppermint. Adrien, on the other hand, looks like he is in heaven and eats with gusto, so much so that he has ice cream on the corner of his mouth. Is this the right moment? If she had a napkin she’d probably use it, but her fingers will have to do. She makes sure not to let her smile fall off as she touches his face, not the way a friend would, but as something more than that. It feels… Wrong, somehow. She mustn’t let it show. If she lets her mind wander for too long… But she doesn’t let herself do that. They enjoy their ice cream in silence, and sure enough they reach the end of the stemmed glass-shaped cone in no time. She gives it to him and they are face to face. She hopes the way she looks at him says enough. He understands, and closes his eyes.

This is the moment she has been waiting for, after months of working towards it, here they are. Everything will be perfect now. She just needs to kiss him. She leans in slowly, closes her eyes… She has to make this quick, no hesitation. Her lips meet his.

Nothing.

No disgust when he kisses her back, not really, but no spark, no firework either, no revelation, in fact it doesn’t make her feel anything.

She truly is broken.

She pulls back, only to see a flustered Adrien giving her a timid smile… This was his first kiss too, wasn’t it? Only… He seems to have liked it. And he thinks she has liked it too. she still manages to keep up appearances after all of that, and he doesn’t see past them. She really is a fraud, isn’t she? She can’t even be glad that he returned her kiss like he thinks she is. She is going to cause him so much pain, even if she doesn’t want to. She has ruined her friendship with Marinette forever, just over ice cream, and she is about to do the same with Adrien. She can’t keep this mask on much longer but she has to, needs to, or maybe there’s no mask at all, just her being a failure, her thoughts are so muddled in her head right now she isn’t sure what she’s doing.

Her hands clench slightly on her skirt. It’s hard to focus on anything, her only certainty is that she needs to get up, but she can’t even do that. Or perhaps she shouldn’t be doing that, she should be texting Mother, and apologise for everything but also if she also tells her that she has just kissed Adrien Agreste, she will be forgiven, surely. Or perhaps second time is the charm, a second kiss just to make sure she hasn’t done it wrong the first time? It would make up for the loss of her friend, wouldn’t it? She has tried so hard for so long, this can’t be just it. She has to keep her composure no matter what. Adrien’s eyes are still on her.

A blur of black and red takes her away before she can do anything, and she finds herself soaring through the air in Ladybug’s arms.She thought she was compromised as a hero, she still is, but this is an emergency, and she can only acquiesce to that. It certainly is urgent enough for Ladybug’s Miraculous to beep and there’s an odd expression on her face Kagami feels like she’s seen before. All these conflicting emotions are making her see things that aren’t there. She will be no use if she freezes, if she lets what has happened get to her, there’s a city to save. Ladybug hides behind a chimney and slides the familiar little black and red box in her direction.

“I hope I didn’t interrupt with… That boy.”

She has no idea.

“I… It’s not what it looked like, not really,” Kagami whispers, more to herself than to anyone else. “I thought he was the one for me, we were made for each other, we’re so… Alike.”

“What happened?” Ladybug’s voice, she has heard it somewhere else before.

“It just … I do not understand. Perhaps I have done it wrong? I thought I had done everything the way I was supposed to, and I’ve ended up hurting someone close to me, and I don’t think she’ll ever want to talk to me again.” She lets out a shaky breath. Here is not the place to break down, especially not in front of Ladybug. “It seems so trivial compared to whatever foe we’ll be facing, and I don’t want you to worry about, so let’s rid Paris of this akuma, shall we?”

Ladybug remains silent, Kagami takes that as a nod of approval.

Despite the circumstances, seeing Longg cheers her up a little. Heart Hunter isn’t exactly hard to miss, she can see it rearing its ugly head in the distance with her naked eye. This is just the distraction Kagami needs to take her mind off everything that has happened. Being Ryuko is exhilarating, and fighting is easy, it’s all she’s ever known. She blocks everything else, even Ladybug and Chat Noir’s quips, and only hears what is important… The enemy is powerful and confusing, its weak point, if it has any, is nowhere to be seen. What she thinks will be a long battle turns out to be very short, a handful of minutes at most, and it ends in the most anticlimactic way, with the butterfly purifying itself on its own, and the Bourgeois couple being reunited.

“Can I drop you off somewhere?” Ladybug asks her as Chat Noir runs off in another direction.

“I thought… Well, the Grand Paris seemed fitting, my mother must be there, and… Maybe the friend I hurt. If that’s not too much of a detour? The boy should be alright for now, I think,” comes her answer.

“I saw her getting caught by the akuma earlier on her way there,” Ladybug says. Her expression softens a little. “She should arrive soon. For what it’s worth, I don’t think she hated you then and I don’t think she hates you now. She tends to overreact a bit, Marinette… But she’s not mean, if you try to explain what happened, I’m sure you two will be able to patch things up!”

They find a convenient alley right next to the palace, where Kagami says goodbye to Longg and watches Ladybug swing away hurriedly. Doubt starts churning in her stomach the moment the heroine leaves her sight. Talking her problems through… She’s never had to before. And what if Ladybug is wrong, too optimistic? This is what she does, she inspires people, rescues them from themselves so of course she would have faith in someone like her, even though she has been akumatised two times. She probably thinks that her words would be dispel anyone’s fears.

Marinette would be right not to forgive her, she knows she wouldn’t. She doesn’t want to get inside the Grand Paris and see all the faces, all these big names she can’t associate faces with, Mother who will be delighted the moment she tells her about the kiss, Marinette’s parents and Marinette herself. Perhaps Adrien will have returned as well. She isn’t ready to deal with any of them. Running away would be the cowardly thing to do. Indecisiveness doesn’t suit her.

The great hall is eerily silent when she enters the hotel, the receptionist is nowhere to be seen… The party is, well, was, upstairs, so of course she wouldn’t hear a thing from where she’s standing. At least the lights are on, nothing seems to have been damaged. She should check her phone just in case, if Mother texted her, she wants to read what she had to say, if it’s Marinette… Nothing, not a single message from anyone. She should be relieved, she really doesn’t need things to get any more complicated than they already are. She isn’t, the self-loathing, the confusion, the dread, none of it has lessened. There is no escaping this. Her every step echoes in the empty space as she makes her way to the lift. And then she hears the automatic door opening, and hurried footsteps getting closer and closer.

“K-Kagami?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> I didn't expect the first chapter to be this well received! Thank you all for the kind reviews and kudos, they watered my crops and helped my brains make serotonin! 
> 
> What was initially meant to be a short 10k words fic got out of hand… Don't worry, I know where I'm going!
> 
> À mardi prochain!


	3. Deception

“K-Kagami?”

She freezes. That voice, she knows it all too well, and she just can’t turn look Marinette in her face. Kagami stares at her shoes, better than having to catch a glimpse of the other’s girl’s faint reflection in the lift’s door.

“Kagami, I…”

Marinette’s voice trembles. And Kagami wants to disappear. It’s all her fault. Her throat feels too tight.

“Please, look at me, I’m… I’m not mad at you okay? What happened at Canal Saint Martin wasn’t anyone’s fault, I made the choice, I chose to leave, you didn’t make me, André forced our hands and Adrien chose you, it’s his choice, I reacted impulsively but I don’t blame you or Adrien for that or anything… And then that akuma attack happened, I got caught, I tried to phone my grandpa afterwards and he won’t answer my call and it’s just… I can’t… And my parents must be wondering where I’ve been now. I think I’ll go check on them and then go back outside to look for my grandpa, yes, that’s what I’m going to… But Kagami… Is… What happened with Adrien? Are you… Is everything okay?”

Kagami hesitantly turns around at that question. She doesn’t trust her own voice for now, and so she simply shakes her head. Despite everything, Marinette is still concerned for her. Despite everything, she is so good to her. She looks so tired, her hair is tousled, that small bag of hers has slipped off her grasp and is lying on the floor, her eyes are glassy… Nothing Kagami could say will make things better, not now. Instead, she closes the distance between them and wraps her arms around Marinette’s shoulders as delicately as she can. Marinette returns the hug with much more strength than Kagami expected. She can’t choke back her sobs this time. Neither can Marinette. They don’t quite let go of each other. Kagami sniffles and tries to breathe normally again. She knows she will sound croaky but she has found the right words. And worrying about someone else, someone she cares about, is the best way not to think about herself.

“I will help you find your grandfather, if you want me to,” Kagami says. “I am sure your parents will understand if you just text them. And then we will… Talk about what happened. How is that for a plan?”

“It’s… It’s not bad at all, actually!” Marinette gives a wet chuckle. With that, she takes a step back and blinks the last few tears away. “We had asked Grandpa to meet me Place des Vosges in front of the carousel, but if he hasn’t answered my call so I don’t think he will be there.”

“Perhaps you should phone hospitals, then? I do not want to assume the worst but it is a possibility.”

“I don’t think he’d be there, he’s really healthy for someone his age, so maybe…”

Marinette doesn’t finish her sentence. A frown has formed on her features, Kagami hears it too, a low droning sound unlike anything she knows. Marinette tenses, and the expression on her face becomes unreadable as her eyes travel across the vast hall, looking for its source if Kagami has to guess. The noise is getting louder and louder. A swarm, she thinks, that must be it. There must be a hornet infestation at the Grand Paris, or something like that. Only it can’t be, the hotel would have been closed if it were the case, someone would have noticed earlier. The noise isn’t coming from inside, and whatever is causing it is getting closer to where they are. She squints her eyes… André Bourgeois, carrying his wife bridal style heading towards the palace, completely oblivious to… It _is_ a swarm of wasps, enveloped by a sickly yellow glow. She watches helplessly as the two get stung.

“…Kagami,” comes Marinette’s voice, some of her words drowned by the angry buzz of a thousand wings as the wasps press against the windows. “…no time for… Guardian’s gonna kill me… later, I promise… Catch!”

Her reflexes are faster than her thoughts, and her hands close around a small wooden object, a box, red and black. Marinette looks at her insistently.

Oh.

“Tikki, spots on!”

No time to ask questions, she puts the necklace on just as the windows give way.

“Longg, bring the storm! Wind dragon!”

The feeling when she becomes incorporeal is nauseating, she had almost forgotten about it. But she doesn’t let it distract her. There is no way Ladybug can escape the swarm, or catch all these wasps with her yo-yo before they get to her. She wills herself to become water and lightning all at once. Her vision blurs as the world around her crackles. When it returns to normal, she is lying on her back with a splitting headache and sweat soaking her brow. Around her, the insects are twitching weakly on the ground as they vanish in a flash of yellow. Marine— No, Ladybug holds out her hand and helps her up.

“I… Do not think I want to do that again,” Ryuko says weakly. “Your… Grandfather is not really your grandfather, is he?”

“No,” Ladybug shakes her head. “He is the Guardian, he gave me my Miraculous in the first place, and I was supposed to return yours… Hawk Moth got the Bee Miraculous under his control, which can only mean…”

“That the Guardian couldn’t guard it,” Ryuko finishes.

“That’s right!” Ladybug nods, and she’s already preparing her yo-yo. “Knowing Hawk Moth’s sense of theatrics, he must have chosen a location where all of Paris will be able to witness his triumph, and if he’s feeling sentimental, it will be in front of the Eiffel Tower. Let’s go!”

* * *

Getting there is a nightmare of dodging people under Miracle Queen’s power and trying to reunite with Chat Noir. They travel under the Seine where the wasps won’t get to them, no need for special macarons for Ryuko to breathe underwater. And sure enough, here is the Guardian, on top of the Palais de Chaillot, inside a glowing green shield of some sorts, barely withstanding the assault of a gigantic butterfly. Hawk Moth is there with a woman who looks awfully close to him, watching as the old man resists with a slight smirk. Down below, Miracle Queen strutting while her new guard of Miraculous wearers stands motionless. That makes seven opponents for the three of them. Despite the odds, Chat Noir still manages to make puns.

The plan Ladybug comes up with is simple, almost simplistic, but it sounds efficient. First they incapacitate the Bourgeois brat to prevent her and her unwilling allies from wreaking havoc on the city, take the Miracle Box back from her, then they dispose of the other two villains. This should be doable, but for any of this to work they’d need to get close enough to Miracle Queen.

“We will need cover,” Ladybug states. “Ryuko, do you think you could…”

“Don’t you think she’d be safer with a supportive role underwater, Ladybug?” Chat Noir interrupts. “She isn’t used to this like we are, if something…”

“I will do it,” Ryuko says. “A water shield to fend off the wasps with something thrown in to distract Hawk Moth and the peafowl lady?” It will be hard to fight at the best of her abilities after that, she is well aware that she can only use that much power before the necklace starts beeping, but this is a risk worth taking.

“On three,” Ladybug starts, “two, one…”

It certainly qualifies as a dramatic entrance. Ryuko is out of the water, a mere second before her fellow heroes, and her entire body flashes white for a second, even brighter than the sun, certainly enough to blind everyone but her fellow heroes, enough to form the bubble that will keep them safe from the wasps when they are face to face with Miracle Queen. They land right in front of the brat, but already her guard is gathering in front of her, Rena Rouge and other heroes. Nino is here too, for some reason, with a vacant stare on his face. Hawk Moth’s shocked expression turns into a mask of indifference. He looks at them with dead eyes, the Sentimonster interrupts his assault on the Guardian. Now is their opening.

Ryuko lunges at the tallest boy — Roi Singe, was it?— who proves to be annoyingly nimble for someone his build. It’s not like she can fully focus on him anyway, she has a barrier to keep up. She dodges his staff, tries to keep a safe distance between them. She has no idea what he can do, there’s nothing about him on the Ladybug, nothing but his name and a blurry picture. It’s not a reason to underestimate him. Out of the corner of her eye, she can guess that Viperion stands no chance, and when Ladybug takes off his Miraculous, in his place stands… Luka Couffaine? Ryuko can’t help but snicker, Marinette really had to choose her friends and classmates to become heroes, didn’t she? Nino probably wears the Turtle Miraculous, then, and of course Rena Rouge would be—

“Unify! Ryuko, on your left!” Chat Noir yells, and she barely sidesteps Pegasus’ portal in time. “Ladybug, it’s an illusion!” and as if on cue, Ladybug’s yo-yo goes through Rena Rouge’s shape.

Chat Noir seems to be one step ahead of everyone, and when Ryuko gets a better look at him, it’s not hard to guess how. That bracelet around his wrist, these odd ears… But he looks exhausted, not powerful. The flat of Ryuko’s sword collides with Rena Rouge’s very real flute, and it barely takes a second for her to know that the red-haired girl is no match against her. In a flick of her wrist, she disarms her opponent and kicks the instrument away and tries to grab the Fox Pendant. Roi Singe gets in her way again, his staff grazes her shoulder and she jumps back. If only she could use more of her powers… The bright blue flash of Pegasus’ portal appearing mere centimetres in front of her face blinds her for a second before it just … Dies out? And Ladybug brandishes the Horse Miraculous. This only diverts Roi Singe’s attention for a second, but this is all the time Ryuko needs to make her move. Her kick lands hard on her opponent’s chin and as he stumbles backwards, she grabs onto the circlet.

“Ryuko, time to take the Queen down!” Ladybug shouts.

She doesn’t need to be told twice. The self-proclaimed Miracle Queen is unguarded. Without a second thought, she hurls her sword at her. A flashy move. The perfect distraction. The brat doesn’t notice the slight gap in the barrier, just big enough to let Ladybug’s yo-yo get through and wrap around the blonde’s ankle, and when she finally does, it’s too late for her, Ladybug has already started pulling the string. Chat Noir’s claw connects with Miracle Queen’s spinning top and a single purplish butterfly escapes from its broken remains. As soon as it is purified, Ladybug takes the Bee Comb away from a very stunned Chloé Bourgeois. Rena Rouge’s body goes limp and her eyes return to their normal colour as Ryuko retrieves her sword. This fight is over. Another has just begun.

“So you have to make this difficult more difficult than it should,” Hawk Moth snarls. “Fools. I don’t need this brat to win when I have the Guardian at my mercy!”

One of the first lessons Mother has ever taught her is that letting your adversary have full power over time, letting them decide when to fight and when to stay on guard is a step towards defeat. Her shaky knees mustn’t get in the way, or the headache, this is more important.

“Wind Dragon!” Ryuko whispers as Chat Noir takes off the Snake Bracelet.

Chloé Bourgeois’ screams of indignation as she tries to grab the Miraculous Box again, Chat Noir relieving the Snake kwami of its duty, Ladybug summoning her Lucky Charm, that should make for the perfection distraction. It should be easy, sneaking up on Hawk Moth and Mayura and getting rid of the amok. A cutting motion to break the cane into two would do the job, that must be where the feather resides, and with that taken care of, the Guardian and the day should both be saved and everything would go back to normal. Which may not be for the best, there still is that difficult conversation she will need to have with Marinette, and with Adrien, not to mention Mother, but the elation of defeating Paris’ tormentor should make it all seem like a walk in the park in comparison.

When she appears next to Hawk Moth, he doesn’t even blink as he parries her attack by catching her sword with his bare hand.

“And your Mother expects you to succeed her as Japan’s newest fencing virtuoso?” He laughs as he forces her sword arm down. “My, I’m afraid she’d be disappointed if she could see you right now. Did you truly think it would be this easy? You’re only a child wearing a special piece of jewellery.”

“And what does that make you? An adult who likes to play dress-up?”

Before she can do anything, the tip of his cane connects with the side of her stomach and she can’t breathe anymore, her lungs are empty. Her vision blurs as her grasp on her sword loosens. She stumbles away from the man and tries to put herself in an en garde position as she gasps for air. If Ladybug is yelling her name, she can’t hear. This fight can’t end now, she has so much more to do… She readies herself for a lunge. It never comes. The side of Mayura’s hand slams against her ribcage this time. Her legs give way and she can feel herself falling down. There is no bright light at the end of the tunnel. Everything goes dark and she can’t hear a thing. She has lost consciousness before she hits the ground.

“ …It’s alright, we’re friends…”

“…still hope!”

“Miraculous Ladybug!”

Too bright… Kagami closes her eyes. When she tries to move her legs, fabric gets in her way. She is back in her ordinary clothes, then. Her head is resting against something hard, or maybe this is just the headache again. The Palais de Chaillot’s rooftop, right, this is where she is. Her throat feels like sandpaper when she tries to swallow. She can’t hear everything, her ears are still buzzing. Tentatively, she opens her eyes again. Ladybug and Chat Noir are standing a few paces away from her, talking to who she guesses is the Guardian. Only his body language is so different he could be another person altogether. She tries to listen more closely. His memory is… Gone? She closes her eyes again. And she thought this day couldn’t get any worse. This day is a disaster through and through, and it’s only the middle of the afternoon.

“I can take her back home or wherever she wants to go,” she hears Chat Noir say. “You should bring Master Fu to the Gare du Nord train station.”

“We should ask her what she wants,” Ladybug retorts. “I think she’s awake.”

Chat Noir’s proposition is sound enough, but as puerile at that might sound, Kagami would rather stay with someone she knows, truly knows, even outside the mask, like Ladybug. She evades the question for now, asks them what happened. If that annoys Chat Noir, he doesn’t say and it doesn’t show, but she has the feeling he isn’t all that happy with her choice. He hugs the old man goodbye and tells him to take care wherever the train is taking him. He asks Kagami one last time, and she gives in; Marinette needs some time alone with this Master Fu, after all, and it’s not like they can’t text each other later. Chat Noir is a little too flirty to her taste. Nevertheless, at her request, he drops her in front of the Grand Paris.

The lift is full of confetti and balloons that weren’t there before, and Kagami is sure it is festive music she hears playing above her head, getting closer as she goes up. The Bourgeois Anniversary Party, she finds out, is still going strong; the happy couple is waltzing while Mother chats with some big name novelist and Jagged Stone tries to stop his crocodile from devouring the buffet. It is what the celebration should have been like from the very beginning, it still isn’t very entertaining for her but at least the mood is actually that of a merry celebration. Gabriel Agreste’s assistant is no longer there, but the Gorilla is, eating peanuts on his own.

Kagami could almost walk past everyone and snack on whatever Marinette’s parents have salvaged, but this is not the way she has been raised. Honesty, obedience and loyalty before anything else. Mother’s initial scowl turns into a barely concealed grin when Kagami talks about what happened at André’s (Kagami omits the part where she could have chosen to share her ice cream with) and the kiss (she choses not to mention her reaction to it, or the aftermath). This certainly counts as a victory of some sorts, doesn’t it? It hardly feels like one.

“This must not get in the way of your training,” Mother asserts. “Nonetheless, I am satisfied with you. This relationship will prove to be beneficial, I am sure. You should join him wherever he is!”

“I will,” Kagami whispers. “Thank you for your… Approval, Mother.”

The truth is, she has no idea where Adrien could be. She still hasn’t asked for his number, and she can only make guesses, he could be in his room, or with the Bourgeois brat. Or perhaps he is still at Canal Saint Martin after all this time? It could be. But she doesn’t go there, instead, she searches for directions to the Gare du Nord. Twenty minutes to get there? Make it fifteen. Thinking while moving always gives her the impression that she is making progress in a way. So. Mother thinks she is dating Adrien, Adrien probably thinks she wants to date him and he probably wants to date her. Despite everything she’s told her, Marinette is probably heartbroken because the boy she’s obsessed with has chosen someone else to be with … And Marinette is Ladybug. Marinette has saved her too many times, and she’s had to save other people from her, and despite all of that she still chose to be her friend.

And Kagami doesn’t know how to deal with any of that. Well that’s not entirely true. She slows down her pace a little. Marinette being Ladybug does explain quite a lot, actually, her sudden disappearances, her tiredness, the intricate plans and so many other things; that doesn’t take anything from their friendship, quite the opposite. As to what Mother thinks… Well, Mother always chooses what to believe in, regardless of what is real. Her defeat in the 1998 World Championship, for instance: no amount of evidence will ever convince Mother that the referee wasn’t paid to sabotage her match. This won’t be any different. Kagami knows she’ll have to navigate with that in mind. She crosses these problems off her list.

Which leaves her with the more serious problem that is the Adrien situation and how she feels about it. She should date him, she knows she should, that’s what every girl her age dreams of. Now that it’s no longer a mere dream but something that could happen to her in a matter of minutes and with only a few words… She is afraid. She comes to the conclusion that no matter what, she won’t sacrifice her friendship with Marinette for anything in the world. Surely, there is a way she can be with Adrien without hurting her best friend. She’ll ask Marinette as soon as she exits the Gare du Nord.

“I think I wanna go home… Not really in the mood for ice cream or anything right now, sorry…”

“There is nothing you need to apologise for.”

Or she'll ask her in a few days, when the time is right. She has never seen Marinette so exhausted in the two months they’ve known each other as friends. They hardly talk on their way to the Dupain-Cheng bakery, not out of hostility but because Marinette is too tired for small talk. And still, she offers Kagami tea and asks her if she wants to eat anything, she makes sure the Miracle Box is well hidden before she collapses on the chaise longue and falls asleep there. Kagami finds a plaid blanket neatly folded underneath, she drapes it over her friend as best as she can without waking her up. Marinette still looks restless, even with her eyes closed… Kagami leaves a note on her desk before she heads outside.

She could just wander aimlessly and act like nothing bad has happened to anyone this afternoon like so many people do. It is a busy Saturday in Paris under a bright sun, the perfect weather for… She really has to stop that. The Lucky Charm is amnesia-inducing, of course, this is probably the reason why Paris isn’t a dead city at this point, why she can’t recall most of her actions as Riposte or Oni-chan. It’s for the best. Adrien has just posted a selfie with André. He really hasn’t moved at all. She doesn’t really want to join him. And yet… She would be a terrible person for leaving him hanging like that.

All that walking is making her legs sore, and she is starting to regret not going back to her flat. She reaches Canal Saint Martin at last. From the other side of the water, she spots Adrien. He is not alone, of course, there is a whole crowd of friends gathered around him, and it would be pointless to list them all, most of the faces are familiar, among them Nino, Alya, Rose and Juleka are here. They haven’t noticed her yet, she could always turns away and call it a day. She isn’t a coward. Sure enough, Adrien’s face brightens when he sees her, he waves at her widely. She returns the gesture, perhaps not as enthusiastically as him, but he doesn’t point that out. He has almost finished his ice cream, nevertheless he offers her what’s left of it. She has to refuse. Hesitantly, gently, he puts his hand on hers, he leaves her all the time she needs to refuse the touch. She doesn’t.

“So, about… You know,” he scratches the back of his head. “Would you want us to be a thing? I mean we don’t have to, but…”

“Yes,” Kagami says with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yes, I want to be in a relationship with you.”

This is what she is supposed to want. This is what is right for her. Perhaps her brokenness can be fixed, if anyone can do it, it has to be him. Marinette… Marinette will just have to deal with this.

It is a nice afternoon. Kagami tries not to think about Marinette waking up alone on her chaise longue, and for the most part she succeeds. She isn’t quite sure about the Luka and Ivan duet, the djembe and acoustic guitar combination isn’t bad per say but not necessarily suited for the blue haired boy’s repertoire. She can tolerate that. Rose is resting her head on Juleka’s lap, they’re whispering silly nothings and grinning at each other like the rest of the world doesn’t exist. Seeing them so contented together always makes her a little miserable, for reasons she can’t explain. She tries to mimic Alya’s pose with her boyfriend, and leans into Adrien’s shoulder a little. When they have to go their separate ways a little later, she kisses him on the cheek, and he mirrors the gesture timidly. Nino gives her an odd look before he walks away with Alya.

**5:34PM**

**Marinette:** _thanks for the blanket and the kind note, i really appreciate!!! so, you and adrien are a couple now? alya told me_

**5:49PM**

**Kagami:** _You are welcome. We are taking things slow but yes we are_

**5:55PM**

**Kagami:** _But I do not want it to make you miserable and it is only the beginning of our relationship, I can stop it if it hurts you too much_

**5:57PM**

**Marinette:** _nononono, its his choice to be w u, you didnt steal him away from me & i have to respect that so obviously im not overjoyed rn but i have to grow up and move on i guess_

**5:58PM**

**Kagami:** _Does that mean we are still friends?_

**Marinette:** _of course :) but with my new duties and everything i need to figure out, i dont think we can hang out on monday and wednesday like we used to, at least not as often… and you still havent told me what happened before i picked you up earlier btw_

**5:59PM**

**Kagami:** _It was nothing important, it is all solved now_

She isn’t sure this is true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry… Things need to get worse before they can get better! 
> 
> And I promise they will… Just not now.
> 
> If you need something with a (somewhat) happier lesbian, read my Julerose fic [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23097571)i
> 
> I'll see you nest Tuesday, in the meantime, take care!


	4. New clothes

Having dinner with the Agrestes every Friday becomes a habit, they often meet on Tuesdays too, and each time Kagami thinks they have just been in the fanciest restaurant in Paris, she is proven wrong. The ceilings get higher and higher and though the decoration changes from place to place, there is that aura of wealth and taste in each and every one of them. The food is ridiculously expensive, even for haute cuisine, this discourages Mother from trying the bathroom trick after the first two times. She seems happy to be here. Kagami acts like she has been instructed to, behaves the way these worthless books have taught her to behave. That seems to be suitable. Adrien always pulls her chair out for her, M. Agreste shows a friendlier face, he sends them dresses he has designed for them. She is sure she sees Mother smile a genuine smile a handful of times.

They go to the opera to listen to recitals, symphonies, they get invitations to jazz concerts in private clubs that smell of cigar and leather, where they always get the best seats. Some names truly open doors. Kagami can’t complain about any of that, watching Oscar Hancock perform a few metres away from her is an experience she’ll never forget, the man is a living legend and he has earned that title. Adrien tags along every so often. She has to thank M. Agreste for most of that. She may not like him, chances are she never will, there is something about the man that gives her a very bad feeling, but she is grateful for all his gifts nevertheless. Lavishing presents on her must be a way for him to dote on his son, making sure that the girl he is dating is as happy as can be.

Only she isn’t. She should have all the reasons to be the most radiant girl in Paris, and still… It is’t because these gifts are inadequate, none of it is Adrien’s fault either. He may not be good at taking initiative, which means she has to take matters into her one hands for them to act like a couple more often, but he isn’t doing it on purpose; he is still trying to get over his crush on a mysterious girl he still won’t name. And so, more often than not, she is the one to come up with ideas for dates and to initiate things with him so that she can act like all good girlfriends should. It’s not much, only small gestures, embraces, the occasional kiss on the cheek, more rarely on the lips. He really is the nicest boy she has ever known, he isn’t the problem. She is.

She is the one unable to enjoy her new life as much as she should when he is around, she is the one wishing she were somewhere else, not holding his hand as he orders passionfruit juice for the two of them. Practice make perfect, but it certainly hasn’t made kissing Adrien any more enjoyable. He can’t see through the joyful facade she puts on when he is all… What was the expression Alya had used, again? Lovey-dovey, around her. If anything, Kagami is glad for his obliviousness, glad he can’t see through her act, because it’s exactly what if feels like. And she thought she couldn’t tell a lie to save her life… She is actually good at this stuff, good enough to fool almost everybody.

Being a family friend of the Agrestes allows her to meet more and more important personalities who have done the most amazing things; she has never felt as lonely as she does now. The few people her age she crosses paths with during these parties and soirées are the self-absorbed children of self-important bourgeois people whose ambition is to own yachts before they are adults. She likes her social life outside of these circles better. She sees Nino more often, and sometimes Alya is with him, they talk about going on double dates together, it is postponed every time they bring it up. They rarely do things they could bond over, unless eating ice cream counts. Now that Adrien has crossed Chloé Bourgeois off his list — she is glad for it, glaring at her was becoming tiresome — she can finally say that she likes all of his friends, or at the very least she tolerates them politely. But it’s not them she wants to see.

She’d never learned how to miss someone until now, there hadn’t been anyone to miss. But with the frequency of Hawk Moth and Mayura’s attacks increasing as well as their dangerousness, Marinette no longer shows up in front of Françoise Dupont every single late Monday and Wednesday afternoon to take her somewhere new, or to hang out at her place, just the two of them. When they are lucky enough to see each other, it’s only for a handful of minutes. This too isn’t Adrien’s fault, or hers, Marinette has hammered that point home so many times now that Kagami believes it. And yet, she is nervous the few times they do see each other face to face, she keeps it a secret from Mother.

It’s not that they’re drifting apart, if anything, she thinks she’s never been closer to Marinette than she is now. Had she been told that she’d become Ladybug’s confidante one day, she wouldn’t have believed a single word of it and yet here they are. Only, talking on the phone, or texting each other using a kind of code just in case _something_ happens isn’t the same as being in the same room as Marinette’s. She can’t exactly put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder to congratulate her or anything like that. She wishes she could. They see each other once a week if fortune smiles on them. More often than not, they’re out of luck. She hasn’t visited the Dupain-Cheng bakery in what feels like years, but this doesn’t mean… It has only been a month since the Miracle Queen debacle and she has become so good at deception she can trick herself as well, she writes in her journal. The two of them do talk but don’t see each other as often. Perhaps they are drifting apart after all. She isn’t sure.

She has to go back to fencing with kids her age. Boring, too simplistic, almost insultingly so. Now that she follows M. D’Argencourt’s more advanced classes, there is not a single of his younger students she cannot defeat, not even Adrien. And that takes into account the fact that she is busy thinking about what she could be doing with Marinette while she fences. Her bluntness ruffles a few feathers. She can’t say she cares. If they can’t tolerate the truth of their incompetence, if they’re unwilling to listen to her advice then so be it, their loss, not hers. What should be two and a half hours of honing her skills is turning out to be a waste of time, even more exhausting than her kendo lessons, at least as straining for her nerves.

* * *

Not as nerve-wracking as Mother’s announcement during one of these dinner dates with the Agrestes.

“We will be flying to Tokyo soon, next Thursday is the junior nationals,” Mother mentions casually as M. Agreste orders one more bottle of Sauvignon. “I am afraid we will have to cancel our plans for the day after. Fret not, we will return as soon as we are victorious.”

It would have been nice of her to tell her that a little earlier, rather than six days before, that would have given her the time to prepare mentally. She doesn’t let her surprise show, or her annoyance, for that matter. Adrien says something about them missing the cherry blossom by a few weeks, and says he has never been to Japan, it would be a great way to practice his spoken skills, he argues. He really ought to. Mother takes the bait, promises they will all go to Kyoto next year and stay at her parents’ mansion. Kagami stays as silent as she can for the rest of the meal. On the bright side of things, they won’t be staying there too long. She doesn’t hate Tokyo, far from it, but being under Mother’s constant supervision, and Father’s, if he is kind enough to get out of that lab to see her…

**10:23PM**

**Kagami:** _I will be returning to Japan for a few days._

**10:27PM**

**Marinette:** _you dont sound overjoyed :/_

**10:28PM**

**Kagami:** _My mother decided to have me enter a national competition and while I do not mind that, I would have liked being aware of that beforehand_

**10:29PM**

**Kagami:** _And like I said it is only for a few days, I will go there, get over my jet lag, compete_

**10:30PM**

**Marinette:** _and win_

**Kagami:** _And probably that, yes, after that I will wear a fancy dress because apparently that is necessary when I meet the fencing federation’s heads, they will tell me that they have high hopes that I will represent Japan for the Olympics, and the morning right after that I will be in a plane again for an ungodly amount of time_

**10:32PM**

**Marinette:** _sounds like it has happened before_

**Kagami:** _It has, and Mother already keeps the federation up to date. I do not mean to brag, but that competition is only a formality_

**10:33PM**

**Marinette:** _youd have wanted your mother to warn you beforehand and you dont really like the ceremoniousness of it_

**Marinette:** _wait is ceremoniousness a word??_

**10:34PM**

**Kagami:** _You are French, you tell me! Anyway, tomorrow will be busy, I think, so I might not be able to answer your texts right away_

**10:35PM**

**Marinette:** _its alright, you do you :) dont overwork yourself ok!!!_

**10:36PM**

**Kagami:** _I will try not to_

She goes to sleep feeling a little less annoyed. The next morning, Mother tells her when the flight is — Tuesday in the early hours of the day, not that it’ll matter, she’ll be asleep the moment they take off — and who she will have to face. The names are familiar, she has defeated most of these girls before and she’ll to do it again. Their Saturday is spent working out a rough strategy against each of these potential adversary. Mother probably didn’t need to pay a single cent to get her hands on all these detailed reports, that’s just how important the Tsurugis are to the world of fencing. Kagami memorises them by heart, watches the few videos attached to the e-mails. By the evening, her eyes are bloodshot and she realises she has several messages from Adrien she needs to answer but she is fairly certain she can rest easy.

Sunday is solely dedicated to her physical training, it starts with a jog, but skip kendo entirely, which saves them a lot of trouble: Hawk Moth’s latest nightmare has decided to make its home at the Jardin des Tuileries, Mother informs her, M. Agreste has sent her a panicked text to tell her so. They continue with sabre training in a private salle exceptionally open for them. It is exhausting and reassuring at the same time, Kagami lasts much longer against Mother than ever before, she even manages to score a few points in a row, which had never happened in ten years of fencing against her. With her opponent and instructor not going easy on her, quite the opposite in fact, it makes the feat all the more impressive.

She spends a good thirty minutes in the bathtub trying to unknot her muscles before her bedtime. Mother often says that she is a sword and that all good swords need tempering. She isn’t so sure about that image, but she does like a hot bath from time to time. Too exhausted to write in her journal, to check her phone or even to read, she dozes off almost as soon as her head hits the pillow.

* * *

Just because there is a competition doesn’t mean her private tutors don’t visit her, or that she gets to sleep in. She doesn’t mind. At least, it helps give her the impression that whatever is waiting for her on Thursday isn’t that big a deal. As she said herself, it is meant to be a mere formality, nothing more. A formality she needs to take seriously, for sure, but she knows well that she has what it takes to be a champion. And so she has to sit through her regular tutoring sessions like she’d do on any other Monday. Maths is alright, history is interesting and geography is geography. If they stay in Paris for the years to come, which seems more and more likely, perhaps she could enrol in a school there? It wasn’t all that great in Tokyo but it could be different here. Her name wouldn’t precede her, for one.

“Hurry, you do not want to be late for M. D’Argencourt’s lesson! Traffic is dreadful!” Mother calls from the living room.

Right. Just because she trained all day yesterday doesn’t mean she gets to skip fencing practice today. She should have seen that coming. She will pack her suitcase later, then. The ride to Françoise Dupont is quite slow and uneventful. It’s for the best. It gives her the time to get prepared for whatever M. D’Argencourt has planned for her. He is rather fond of showing off his oratory skills, he could have become a hammy sort of actor in another life. What will it be this afternoon? A rousing monologue about the greatness that comes with overcoming adversity? The beauty of swordsmanship? The glory of representing one’s country? The universality of sabre fencing? She decides she doesn’t need to be focused for the next handful of hours. Automatic pilot time it is. The car door opens, she heads towards Françoise Dupont’s great door. Next stop, the changing room.

“…gami!”

Hold on.

“Earth to Kagami, do you copy?”

She turns around and of course Marinette is here with a bright smile on her face, sitting on her bike. Kagami’s heart skips a beat, and she has to say, the sensation isn’t the worst? “I copy,” she answers, and she can feel the corners of her mouth turn upwards. “Is this a kidnapping?”

“It might just be,” Marinette nods amusedly. “It’s good to see you!”

If not for that bicycle standing between the two of them, Kagami would hug her. A good kidnapping is one that takes very little time, or so she’s heard. She sets an alarm on her phone to remember to be back in time, gets on the bike’s rack and puts her arms around her friend’s waist. It’d be faster with the car, she supposes, but the security has been heightened, Mother pre-programs her every trip and the doors lock so that she can’t get out before she has reached her destination. She likes that bike better anyway. It’s a very short ride, Marinette is pedalling faster than ever and Kagami tries not to think about the other girl’s warmth. Before she knows it, they are in front of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, and Marinette is all but dragging her by the wrist, hurrying her through the door and upstairs. They only stop to take off their shoes. The living room smells like coffee and cake but already Marinette is squeezing her shoulder and pushing her towards the trapdoor. She opens it and…

“Sorry for the mess…”

That would be putting it lightly. There are bits of fabric and thread everywhere, scraps of papers in unlikely places, some sort of notebook wide open on the table, right next to a small black and red box. Kagami isn’t sure she’d be able to walk without accidentally stepping on something. She definitely can’t sit on the chaise longue either. It has to be in this state for a reason, Marinette wouldn’t just let her living space turn into a war zone, this isn’t like her. She hasn’t been invited to help her tidy up her friend’s room, has she? There are no more pictures of Adrien on her walls, patterns for various garments have replaced them quickly, posters from films, exhibitions… She truly is trying to see him as a friend and only that. It makes her room relatively more comfortable to be in.

And then she sees it, on the dummy, covered in pins. The blazer jacket is a dark shade of red, the same as her fencing gear. She wouldn’t call herself a fashion design expert, not by any means, but she can tell this is an amazing job. A lot of work went into this, and it shows. For all her opinion his worth, she likes it better than M. Agreste’s creations.

“So the other day you sounded annoyed about having to put on a fancy dress and meeting all these people,” Marinette says. “I know you won’t be able to escape the ‘meeting all these people’ part but maybe I could improve the ‘fancy dress’ part… So I thought I’d make you a suit as an early birthday present! The trousers and tie are in a drawer. I thought we could try to tailor all of that today before you put it in your bag tonight?”

Kagami doesn’t trust her voice, and so she nods. It’s so hard to keep her composure right now, not take Marinette’s hands in hers. She really is in the mood for physical signs of affection today, she doesn’t know what is with that. Probably the fact that they haven’t been together in a room in what feels like decades. “This is… I don’t know how to thank you. How long have you been working on this?”

“Oh, I’ve been at it since Saturday morning!”

Her friend has spent her entire week-end creating something just for her just because of a silly text. Well that and saving Paris from one akuma each day. That would definitely justify a thank you pat on the back or something like that, but initiating physical contact with Marinette always feels like she is doing something forbidden. “You are brilliant,” she says at last. “I’ll be happy to wear this suit.”

Without a warning, Marinette hugs her and gives a content hum that makes her stomach flip when she returns the embrace. For a little while, neither of them lets go. Kagami can’t say she minds. Her eyes close and she simply listens to Marinette’s breathing. Her hair is tickling the side of her face a little, but that doesn’t bother her either. This feels right somehow. She only opens her eyes reluctantly when Marinette lets go and takes a step back. For a moment, she looks almost bashful, and Kagami isn’t sure why. She feels like she should say something. Fortunately, Marinette saves her the trouble.

“If you want to thank me, you can stay perfectly still for the next hour!”

And so she does. Tailoring, it turns out, is a lot more dangerous than it seems. And Marinette is very skilful when she needs to be. Her kwami — so that’s what they are called— is a great assistant, holding the pincushion patiently, she is the one flying around with the measurement tape; when she isn’t needed she snacks on biscuit crumbs. The blazer takes the longest, of course, but Marinette got things right for the most part. She sings to herself, and she bites her tongue a little when she works on small details that demand all of her attention. It’s a little endearing, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that she is amazing at this, and if Kagami didn’t know better, she’d assume there is magic involved. She tries on the trousers behind the ornate screen and they repeat the process. Just when she is starting to think that this is getting a little long, Marinette tells her they are done.

“It should take me maybe thirty minutes to add the finishing touches and then we should be able to get back to Françoise Dupont just in time for your car to pick you up! I’ll clean the chaise longue. Any kind of music you wanna listen to?”

“Whatever you usually listen to,” Kagami yawns.

All of this is making her sleepy. Well, that and the two days of training with no break. She knows she’ll get to rest in the plane, but the though doesn’t make her more awake all of a sudden. Her surroundings aren’t helping, the chaise longue is too comfortable, and Marinette’s work playlist consists in classical music, mostly piano, nice and relaxing. If not for the faint, intermittent whirr of the sewing machine in the background to remind her that her friend is still in the room, she would certainly fall asleep right away. Her eyes feel heavy. Surely, she can take a nap, Marinette wouldn’t mind, and besides, there will be her phone to remind her when she needs to get going. She lets herself drop off.

“…mi! Hey! Kagami!”

This soon? Her alarm hasn’t rung yet, has it? She cracks her eyes open and tries to stretch but the blanket is getting in her way. Wait. Blanket? Did Marinette… She can’t help the blush that creeps on her cheeks. Marinette is standing right above her, beaming at her. Kagami straightens up, hastily runs a hand through her hair to tame it a little. Outside, the sun appears to be starting to set, part of her wants to ask Marinette if they can go to the rooftop terrace to watch it. But that will be for another day. If she has guessed correctly, the reason why she has been woken up is waiting for her on Marinette’s work table.

“Thank you for the blanket. Are you finished with the suit?” she asks for good measure.

“I think so! Come and see!” It’s rare to see her this excited.

It was great before, and now she isn’t sure she has the words to describe it. A professional tailor couldn’t have done a better job. How long has Marinette been interested in fashion like that? She will have to ask one day. When she tries the blazer on, it is a perfect fit, one glance at her reflection confirms her impression. With a proper shirt and her good pair of loafers, it will be even better. She isn’t sure if Marinette is looking appraisingly at her creation, or at maybe at her. Either way, that blush is returning to her cheeks. Making it her everyday outfit would make it less sacred, but she would trade her school uniform for custom Marinette clothes in a heartbeat. Perhaps she’ll commission her a few, when Hawk Moth and Mayura stop making her life hellish?

But her alarm is blaring and it’s the signal that tells her she’ll need to be in front of the collège soon. Marinette understands, lets her take off the suit which she puts in a bag. It should be able to fit in her suitcase just fine, Kagami rationalises as they all go downstairs to retrieve their shoes. There is no hurry, they should be able to make it in time. Marinette pedals a little slower, and still, she is sure they will make it to Françoise Dupont at least good five minutes early. They take a more scenic road, following the banks of the Seine. It really is beautiful, the water has taken a coppery hue, a light breeze makes the leaves rustle and it is tempting to ask Marinette to stop so that they can walk the rest of the way to the school. She can’t afford to be late, it’s just a stupid wish, she berates herself. It will be for another day. They arrive before the car, a little before the end of M. D’Argencourt’s class, too.

“Do you miss Japan?” Marinette’s question comes out of nowhere.

“I am not sure,” Kagami says. “I know I want to return there, but on my own terms.”

Preferably in Tokyo, still, but away from her parents’ flat, definitely a big city at the very least. There are no concrete plans just yet, but it’s an idea she has entertained before. It could be Japan, it could be somewhere else, but she wants the final choice to be hers. Voicing it instead of writing it down in her journal makes it feel more real.

“So you didn’t keep your school uniform out of nostalgia,” Marinette guesses.

“Only because there is my family crest on it,” Kagami confirms. “The school itself was nothing special. You know I am not a social butterfly, it was the same back there.” That might have been a little too heavy. “I am getting better now,” she adds. Marinette nods in agreement.

From the corner of her eye, she can see her car arriving. The moment she gets inside, she won’t be able to see her friend for at least four days. That much, she can live with, they have done worse before. What makes it more difficult is knowing that they won’t be able to answer each other’s texts in time, let alone phone each other. She needs to hurry. Adrien and the others will be out soon, and she really doesn’t want things to be awkward. She takes the bag that contains her suit from the bike rack and glances at Marinette. Her friend hates goodbyes as much as she does.

“I know you’re gonna do great on Thursday, and I guess you know that too,” Marinette says as she opens the door. “But I’ll cheer for you anyway!”

“I… Thank you,” Kagami replies. “And good luck for the rest of your week, it was really nice to spend some time with you.”

“It really was,” Marinette exclaims. She gives Kagami’s shoulder a small squeeze. “You take care, alright?”

“I will, and you do too,” Kagami says.

Marinette kisses her on the cheek, just like she would with any of her friends, and she can feel her face heating up. Of all these French customs, this is the one she is the least used to. Awkwardly, she gets in the car. The door closes itself behind her, much sooner than she would have liked it to. The drive home is oddly stressful. Not because of traffic, it is back to normal, the car drives at a steady pace, rather, because of what is in the bag. It feels like she is doing something forbidden. Not that Mother notices it, of course, in fact she only asks her to have her suitcase ready before dinner. She ends up packing both the Agreste dress and Marinette’s present. A quick shower and a quick meal later, she goes to bed.

* * *

At 3:45AM precisely, her alarm clock rings. At 4:05AM, she is fully dressed and her hair is a little wet but there is no time to dry it. All of their luggage is already at the airport, courtesy of the Japan Fencing Federation, all they need to do is to get there too. Mother lists all the things they will have to do once they are out of the plane, Kagami barely follows. Paris is, for the most part, fast asleep. The airport is bustling. This is time for her brains to go to autopilot mode again. She shuts out everything, follows Mother’s command. There is a lot of waiting until, at last, they are allowed on the plane. Unexpectedly, her phone buzzes. Fortunately for her, she has turned off the text-to-speech option ages ago.

**06:57AM**

**Marinette:** _good flight!_

As soon as she is on her seat, her eyes close. She is awake for a grand total of half an hour, the time to eat lunch. The next thing she knows, she is walking out of the plane groggily, someone — definitely not Father— is driving them away from the airport, she can’t look outside the car window, she hasn’t picked the right seat for that. There is the sound of something being unlocked, her old bedroom and sleep claims her once more. She is well rested when she goes to the kitchen for breakfast — at least is is what the clock tells her— and a little hungry. She had forgotten they had so many paintings on the walls, the flat in Paris feels so empty in comparison. Father is already gone, his cup of tea is in the dishwasher. It looks like Mother isn’t up just yet. She has missed a few messages, she finds out when she checks her phone.

**4:32PM**

**Adrien:** _Heyyy! Did you land safely? Answer me whenever you can!_

**9:12PM**

**Marinette:** _it should be your bedtime now if i checked correctly, so sleep tight! i wonder what the view from your bedroom in tokyo is like_

The answer to that is, “not much really” which doesn’t stop Kagami from taking a picture. Unless “just an average street in Aoyama” counts, it definitely doesn’t beat the view from the Dupain-Cheng bakery. She would have more to show if she lived in a flat in a tower instead of a house. Not that she complains about the house, it _is_ well situated, and Father says the architect did a wonderful job, which is probably true. The other messages are from her service providers, a bookshop that informs her that her order has arrived and that she can retrieve it. She’ll answer Marinette’s message and Adrien’s after breakfast, she decides. She puts down her phone on the kitchen’s oak table. She picks it up a minute later.

**07:21AM**

**Marinette:** _good morning! i hope you slept well! its my turn to sleep now_

It finally occurs to Kagami that it is midnight in France. Her first reaction is to worry that Marinette is up this late, before dawns on her that her best friend has thought about wishing her a good day before going to bed. It is so thoughtful of her… It is a nice way to start the day, she feels a little warmer. She types a short message and sends it right away.

**07:22AM**

**Kagami:** _Sleep well! Sweet dreams!_

Her spirits don’t stay high for too long. Soon Mother is up and she has a very precise schedule for the day she expects her to follow. She does as she is told. Here is not the place to be disobedient, the day before a competition often matters just as much as the competition itself, she knows it all too well. At least, Mother push her too hard, just enough to make up for all the time they have lost on the plane. They mostly work on her footwork with a skipping rope, on her dodging skills with a bokken. The garage may not be the best-suited place for this, but Mother refuses to waste any time moving somewhere else, Father has taken the car and the weather isn’t right, she argues, they would be caught in the rain if they walked to their usual gym. Sure enough, it starts pouring an hour into their training. They’ll have to stay inside, then. Here go her hopes of actually going outside to get reacquainted with her neighbourhood.

They stop for lunch and then continue until dinner. They eat early, she never likes that “last meal before a competition” much, never very tasteful, almost too nourishing. It is a necessary evil to ensure she will have enough energy for what is waiting for her, it doesn’t mean she has to be fond of it. They don’t wait for Father — he has taken the day off tomorrow and is making up for it by going out to drink with the rest of his research team — and as soon as they are finished, they both go to bed. When she was younger, Kagami used to have insomnia before big days such as this. She has grown out of these problems, a mix of meditation, tisane and not looking at screens usually does the trick.

This time isn’t any different. Tomorrow, she will win Japan’s junior national sabre championship. In four years, the Olympics, right here. She won’t fail. She can’t fail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> I sure hope you enjoy fencing because the next chapter is basically just that! In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this one!
> 
> Please take care of yourselves wherever you are.
> 
> I'll see you next Tuesday!


	5. Consecration

Kagami wakes up a handful of minutes before her alarm rings. Her fencing gear is already at the gymnasium where the championship will take place, she remembers, she only needs to pack her outfit for the ceremony that will follow. She could wear the Gabriel dress, it is a pleasant shade of green, and her wearing M. Agreste’s piece would make a good impression. Or she could wear the suit Marinette has made for her. She isn’t sure her parents would be very happy with her, especially if they knew where it came from, but it looks great and it’s a present that means a lot to her. She can’t make up her mind. It doesn’t matter, she has more important things to look forward to, she’ll decide at the last minute. She puts both outfits and their assorted pair of shoes in a bag and rubs her eyes. Oh, this won’t do.

A cold shower does wonders to make her more alert. When she steps out of the bathroom in her usual school uniform, she is greeted with the smell of French toast — though she has no idea why they are named this way— and freshly-brewed tea, the sound of something cooking in a pan. Mother and Father are in the kitchen. She appreciates their preparing her breakfast for her… Well, the robots, she supposes. They eat in silence and listen to the radio; she has to admit, she had missed the NHK. No long-winded speech about how she needs to be victorious lest she dishonours them all, for once. It must be the jet-lag.

“Tatsu, open the garage,” Father says as he locks the door behind him, and it’s the first time she has heard him speak in the almost two days she has returned. He sounds as tired as he looks, the dark rings under his eyes are even deeper than they usually are, they catch her attention more than the Gabriel tuxedo he is wearing. “We should make it there in time.”

Mother is flawless in her tomesode, she wears the family crest proudly. “We should be here early,” she corrects. “Tatsu, to Minato-ku Sports Centre.”

The black car’s headlamps light up as it unlocks itself. Kagami sits in the back, Father insists he should drive, “this is only a prototype,” he argues, “it should make the old model obsolete, nevertheless there are some features than need improving before it is safe.” It would be a shame to die mere hours before the event that will ensure that she becomes an Olympic fencer. The drizzle on the tinted windows make it difficult to see outside, she can only discern blurred shapes. She really won’t be able to revisit Tokyo today, will she? She’ll get from one closed space to another to another still. And to think that she’ll be flying back to Paris tomorrow morning… But she should be in the here and now, she berates herself.

Soon, sooner than she had expected, the car comes to a stop and here they are, in front of the Sports Centre. It hasn’t changed since last time, she finds it just as imposing as before. It should be, considering that it contains an Olympic pool, a large dojo and, if she recalls correctly, both a basketball court and a volleyball court, or perhaps they were one of the same. It has been two years, she’s had more important things to memorise than that. The underground car park is already quite packed, so it is a safe guess that some of her co-competitors have arrived. A woman from the Fencing Federation is waiting for them at the entrance and welcomes them inside. There is a locker with Kagami’s name, where her gear is.

“We will be on the tiers, just above the judges,” Father informs her.

“Make them see what the Tsurugis are worth,” Mother commands. “Only come when it is time.”

Kagami simply nods. Security checks her bag beforehand — “you never know, miss” — before she can get to the locker room, just like last time. The room is empty for now. The competition only starts in two and a half hours. She puts her fencing gear on, they had a lamé made for this occasion, with her number (twenty-two) on the back. It is the perfect shade of red, just like she had required. It will make her stand out in the middle of all these other girls in white, and it is precisely the point. This would be the moment when a lesser fencer would have sweaty palms, when fear would grip them. She is better than that, and it is why she will come out victorious. She puts a hoodie over her lamé, drawing unnecessary attention now would ruin the effect, locks her locker and goes up the stairs with her phone and bottle of water.

An empty room with a wooden barre. She hasn’t come her to practice her dance skills, but it will do just fine. In fact, it is the perfect place for her to warm up undisturbed. And so she does, taking it slow, no use to be a sweaty mess before the competition has started. If she has set her timer properly, she should be done ten minutes before her presence is required. She lets her mind go blank as she goes over her routine. Her shoulders loosen, and her footwork is getting lighter by the minute. She finishes with breathing exercises, her eyes closed. It is getting much noisier downstairs, more spectators must have arrived, more concurrents, too. If she were to return to the locker room, she is almost sure it would be crowded. Her phone buzzes, she picks it up, but this isn’t the alarm she had set up.

**9:24AM**

**Marinette:** _go, kagami, go! im rooting for you!!!_

The rest of the message consists in too many emojis, and it’s hard not to chuckle at all this enthusiasm. Still, it’s a heartwarming message. It’s too tempting to write back, but no distractions, she reminds herself, if her mind is somewhere else than the fencing piste for the next hours, she has already lost. She disables the alarm and makes sure to close the door behind her. She makes her way to the locker room again to put her phone with the rest of her things. There must be a good thirty other girls changing themselves and chatting, they barely notice her. Locker rooms always felt awkward to her… There is a space just on the edge of the reconverted volleyball court — they have set up two pistes in the middle, with its assorted scoring box for everyone to see — where the competitors are meant to sign their names to officially take part in this national sabre cup. The person sitting behind the desk looks at her knowingly when she does as she is told.

And then she waits and lets her eyes wander. She can see her reflection in the parquet floor, and that of the spotlights on the ceiling. The “audience” side of the tiers is filling with people from all around the country, she can hear bits of Osaka dialect, Hokkaido-ben as well. These spectators are mostly the families of the sixty-three other fencers and their instructors, but also simple fencing enthusiasts… There are more than the year before. Someday, she hopes, the tiers will be full. Minutes tick by and the mood gets more and more tense around her. She can already tell who won’t make it past the first round, five of her sixty-three potential opponents are too nervous, which screams “first important competition”. The names don’t come to her immediately but she has seen the faces in her files. They seemed more competent than they do now. That sort of attitude will get them nowhere.

At last the judges appear, Mrs. Arisugawa, whose first name she can’t remember, Masaru Ota, Kenta Aoki… The federation’s president will be there for the final match, she supposes. She would do the same if she were in his shoes. The inaugural speech is word for word the same as last year’s, she isn’t the only one to notice it. She keeps her composure; the same cannot be said of all her other competitors. There is a difference between confidence and arrogance that some of them do not seem to understand. She will have to teach them the hard way, then. Not right away, she’ll have to sit through eleven bouts, but that should not be too long. With five minutes for each bout and a thirty minute break between each [tier competition]… It will be a test of patience as well. There used to be four pistes before, but considering that the federation is looking for champions, that choice makes sense, easier to focus when things aren’t happening at both sides of the room.

Fencers one and two are called, and the competition begins.

Is this really a national championship? Neither girl is outstanding. She would call their fencing style serviceable at best, and that would be too generous. Nevertheless, she keeps her eyes on the piste. At last, number two snatches the victory away from the other fencer, number three and four are up, and so on. Kagami has to say, this is all very quite forgettable this far; she had expected this competition to be a mere formality, not something mind-numbingly boring. The problem is, these girls aren’t amateurs, they have been deemed decent enough to compete, but they are nothing special either. Number fourteen — Tachibana, was it?— is quite good and her sense of tempo gives her the upper hand easily, she about as good as Adrien, but still no match for her.

“Number twenty-one, Michiru Kino, number twenty-two, Kagami Tsurugi.”

She unzips the hoodie. There is always this overly dramatic moment when people hear her name, see her all dressed in red and whisper to themselves. She has to say, it never bores her. The other girl knows what “Tsurugi” is synonym with, who here wouldn’t? They make sure the scoring box works properly — red for her, fittingly, green for Kino— before they shake hands. Kino’s grip is weak, her wrist is limp. Kagami would almost feel bad for her if not for the fact that this is not a friendly bout but a competition that will confirm what the next thirty years of her life will be dedicated to. The world around her slows down and vanishes. There is only the piste, the referee’s voice her opponent and herself.

Fear makes people do foolish things. Such as lunging directly at a girl whose speciality is ripostes, with a blatant attack. The scoring box blinks red and Kagami has to fight back a sigh. Do they really have to do this? It’s almost like she’s bullying the poor kid. She has already won, so why even bother? But she has fourteen more points to go to go to the next table, or at least as many as she can score in the next ten minutes. If she makes it quick, it will be less embarrassing for the both of them. Fear makes people persistent too, apparently, because has soon as the referee says “allez!” again, her opponent advances and tries to attack her again. The scoring box blinks red once more. Kino just loves to throw herself on her adversary’s sabre, doesn’t she? They return to their en garde marks and Kagami decides she won’t let the other girl humiliate herself any further, she’ll take care of attacking her.

The thrusts of her sabre meet her target, her cuts as well, without anything resembling a defensive action from Kino until it’s already too late. That girl shouldn’t have been there in the first place, it seems unlikely that she has entered the competition herself. The scoring box blinks red over and over again, until the referee announces the end of the bout. Fifteen touches against none, in a little less than three minutes. She can feel all eyes follow her as she takes off her fencing mask and steps off the piste to shake Kino’s hand, as is customary. If her Parisian friends were here, what would they think of her? Adrien would be look stunned speechless, she is sure. Marinette would congratulate her, and then worry about the other girl’s wellbeing. Or something like that.

Kagami watches the rest of the bouts with attention, a few other fencers stand out, number seventeen from a little before her, Yamada, whom she hadn’t seen in ages, number thirty-one, Ibuki, who is as small as ever, number forty-three, Hanasaki, who has grown quite a bit, number forty-five, Hongo, a new face from Hokkaido… None of the others look promising, unless they underperformed on purpose. No wonder she has moved to France to continue her training, what she has seen so far is an insult to sabre fenci— She is sounding like Mother. No, she needs to look on the bright side of things. These four will make things slightly more complicated for her, she knows it, and the prospect is exciting. It doesn’t change the fact that she will be the gold medallist, but it might make the rest of her day a little less dull. Twenty interesting minutes out of a two and a half hour thing? This is barely better than the regionals.

The competition stops for the judges to deliberate, Mrs. Arisugawa is glancing at her from time to time, Hanasaki and Ibuki as well. Mother and Father have remained stone-faced through the entire round, they still are. One of the two pistes is taken away. It is already lunchtime, some people have brought their lunchboxes, she can smell it. The thirty minute pause makes sense, all of a sudden. Last year, they had split the championship in two days, it had started on a Wednesday afternoon and continued the next morning. She had found it nice, only, she was sitting in the tiers, not standing on the piste. She won’t eat, not more than a granola bar, it would make her slow. She’ll simply have more for dinner. Most of the other girls don’t have lunch either. A few of them do, and Kagami knows they won’t make it past the next round.

It seems that some are friends, they are chatting about schoolwork and boyfriends and family matters like this is a playground, some are checking their phones, some have their earphones on. Kagami likes to think that she is relaxed enough, but this is more than just relaxation. At least it’s better than them being too nervous to compete, she supposes. She doesn’t let her mind wander and focuses on her breathing instead. Yes, that’s it, breathing exercises will make these thirty minutes tick by painlessly, she decides. She blocks out everything around her until the atmosphere changes. The spectators are back, the judges and the referee as well.

The championship resumes, and with half as many competitors, it starts getting slightly less mortifying to watch. Which isn’t to say that this is up to par with what a national championship should be like in her mind, of course. They’ll get there at some point, but she hopes they could get there faster. The remaining fencers who had been stressed out at first now walk confidently to the piste when their names are called. An older girl, Koito, proves to be more than she had seemed at first. Five bouts take place before it is Kagami’s turn. She is glad to see that her opponent’s wrist isn’t limp when they shake hands. Inoue… She must have defeated her at some point, there is something familiar about her face, perhaps her slightly crooked nose. They put their fencing masks on, test the scoring box, and on the referee’s command, get to their en garde marks.

Inoue is smart enough not to lunge at her right away and to be held at her sabre’s mercy. She isn’t skilled enough to parry the cut aimed at her left arm, a sweeping motion just below her guard. It’s just like what Kagami had read in the girl’s dossier, good observation skills and planning, but a tendency to react slowly when facing the unexpected. Inoue could use to learn from Mari— no, the bout, the bout is what matters. Kagami doesn’t budge as the other girl feints, she parries the thrust and ripostes right after. The scoring box blinks red again, and four more times after that before it blinks both colours. Inoue has managed to strike her on the shoulder, while her own sabre is against the other girl’s stomach.

“Simultané, pas de touche,” the referee yells.

That was too close to her liking. At least, none of them gets to score a point. Kagami squares a shoulders a little more and leaves her right side exposed. Inoue won’t take the bait, instead she’ll try to lock sabres with her. She is slightly bigger, so she’ll likely try to turn this into a contest of strength. She is in for a surprise. Kagami lets her follow through with the first part of her plan, but where Inoue expected to be able to push her sword against her opponent, Kagami beats it completely out of line and continues with a simple thrust. That’s it, she has figured Inoue out. It as nice while it lasted. During the next three minutes, the scoring box only blinks green once more.

Sitting and watching the others isn’t the occasion to lay back. The more she sees, the less she thinks the files Mother got reflect the way her co-competitors behave on the piste. Yamada defeats her adversary without much trouble, it takes more time for Ibuki but she comes out victorious as well, while Hanasaki barely gets the upper hand. Hongo is the one who surprises Kagami the most. The way she moves… She has definitely followed ballet classes when she was younger, and it shows. That’s an unusual style, a lot more fluid than her own. She will be an annoying one, for sure. Whoever will have to face her next ought to have nerves of steel.

There are only sixteen of them left by the end of the round. And now comes the moment when everything gets faster, and more interesting. Only eight bouts for this round. Mother is visibly more tense, as Father whispers in her ear. He has been her eyes for the most part. With all that chatter from the tiers, it must have been hard for her to hear everything until now but soon, the court will be dead silent, at least Kagami hopes so. Yamada gives her a fiery glare. Oh, she wants it to be personal, then? She still can’t get over that Kansai competition all these years ago? Such a shame… Well, if Yamada is so keen on repeating the past, she will be happy to refresh her memory.

“Number nine, Nanami Koito, number fourteen, Nodoka Tachibana!”

That Koito girl is ruthless, relentless, she simply never lets her opponent catch her breath. She seems fond of remises, too. Now, that is more than simply annoying. Tachibana can’t keep up with her when she is forced to play a defensive role, she fares a little better when she has the right of way. This doesn’t suffice for her to win. Already, Kagami’s mind is racing to come up with a proper strategy against that. Making precise plans hasn’t been her forte, the only time it has worked so far has been with Adrien, never with fencing, at least not against opponents she has never faced. A basic outline usually suffices. She might just have one that could work against Koito. And now it’s her turn to face her opponent.

For the first time since she stumbled out of that plane, Kagami can honestly say that she is having fun. Yamada is a worthy adversary, a little spiteful, but worthy nonetheless. Her timing has improved, which makes them hard to parry. Hard but not impossible. By the end of the first three minutes, Kagami is leading with five touches, Yamada has scored four. She has earned them. What hasn’t improved is the girl’s stamina, she needs to keep her actions short, she can’t last against complex assaults without a glaring blunder here and there. Kagami makes the most of it. Her attacks force Yamada to leave her lower lines exposed, she fixes that mistake quickly, and when Kagami tries the same move a second time, she narrowly escapes her opponent’s sabre. Right. She mustn’t let her guard down.

Still, Yamada is slowing down and lagging behind, Kagami keeps the upper hand, and when the referee calls for a one minute break again, she has nine points in total, the other girl is stuck at four. Something in the way she carries herself changes, there is resignation in her steps. Resignation and resentment. Every time she gets to beat Kagami’s sabre out of line, even if that won’t get her enough touches to win, she does so more forcefully than she would need to. And yet the scoring box only blinks red for the remainder of the bout. It’s with great reluctance that she shakes Kagami’s hand. Now is not the time to play silly games. Kagami keeps her composure.

Ibuki wins her bout, Hanasaki is out of the competition at last, Hongo has taken care of that, just like Kagami had hoped. Unless she is mistaken, she should be facing Koito in the semi-final round, and Hongo at last. The “fencer” side of the tiers is almost empty now. There are only eight of them left. Hongo’s future opponents aren’t worth naming, she can already tell that they don’t stand a chance against her. The court is silent, if not for judge Ota drumming his fingers on the table as he whispers something to Mrs. Arisugawa. Kagami isn’t so good at lip reading but even she can make out the word “president” and “soon”.

In forty minutes, approximatively.

Unsurprisingly, Koito outclasses her opponent, one Rei Aomame. It doesn’t feel like a public humiliation as much as a lesson in the importance of being flexible, literally. Aomame can parry quite well, but her footwork is slightly too slow, her back too stiff. That slowness and that stiffness are what makes all the difference between the two fencers. The bout is laborious, by the end of it Koito has scored twelve touches, her opponent only five. Both girls are panting when they take off their fencing helmets and shake hands. At least Aomame looks dignified as she walks out of the court.

Kagami already knows how to proceed when the referee calls her name and Ibuki’s. When they shake hands, the small girl gives her a confident smile. The scoring box blinks green, twice in a row, and Kagami has to fight back a chuckle. Ibuki is a perfectly good fencer who does everything by the book, when her ego doesn’t get to her head. And what better way to boost it than giving her the impression that she is on her way to victory? Kagami lets her have a few more touches before her plan comes to fruition, just in time for the referee to call for a one minute pause. Only then does she decide to stop this charade.

Pride makes Ibuki sloppy. Kagami can see that feint coming from miles away. She dodges the thrust that follows it deftly, advances and lunges before the other girl can protect herself. The next time Ibuki attacks, she beats her sabre out of line and continues with a thrust to her fencing mask. Ibuki’s ego can inflate quite quickly, it is also very fragile. The rest is almost too easy, and by the time the second part of the bout is over, Kagami has an advantage of two points over her opponent. A few months back, she would have fought Ibuki head on, out of pride. She would have won of course, but it would have been a complete waste of energy. She has two more bouts after this one anyway, if she is tired, it won’t do.

She must stay vigilant, of course, Ibuki is still trying her best to regain the upper hand… But it’s already too late for her, the kid becomes more and more predictable with every new touch Kagami lands on her. At last the referee calls for the end of the bout. Thirteen touches against six? Not too bad, not too bad. Ibuki is very red in the face when they shake hands again, there is an air of dejection about her that makes her slump her shoulders. Hongo waltz through her match, quite literally. The last bout isn’t worth watching, whoever has won will be defeated by the Hokkaido fencer. Instead, Kagami plays out all the ways she could defeat Koito, and Hongo after her.

“Number nine, Nanami Koito, number twenty-two, Kagami Tsurugi.”

An advance, a thrust, a remise, a cutting motion and another thrust, another one still… Koito is fast and precise. It’s a good thing that Kagami can be both of those things too. The referee calls for a simultané. Tenaciousness suits the girl, and Kagami can’t help but grin as her sabre flickers into an en garde position. A thrust, a feint, another thrust… And now is her time to parry and riposte. The scoring box blinks for her. As long as she can prevent Koito from keeping the right of way for too long, she should be fine. Easier said than done, of course, as the bout goes on, the older girl is only two points behind her, and unlike Ibuki, she can keep her temper in check. They have reached the end of the first three minutes of the bout, and Kagami takes a long sip from her water flask.

The second phase of her plan begins now. She advances and continues with a thrust. Koito parries. Just like she had expected her to. She moves forward, disengages her blade and the scoring box blinks red. When Koito tries to attack, she is met with a stop hit and a cut to the arm. She may be fast, but she has her tells, the way her grip on the hilt of her sabre changes when she goes for a thrust or a cut, the way her feet turn ever so slightly when she is about to feint rather than truly attack. If only reading people was as easy as applying her observations to her fencing strategies… But Kagami knows she’ll have all the time to reflect on that, the referee is asking them to go back to their en garde lines.

Koito is a fine defender, but being forced into that role doesn’t fit her style. She can’t go into long strings of attacks when she is interrupted and too busy dodging to fight back properly. Her defeat isn’t dishonouring, not by a long stretch, by the end of the bout, she has stayed strong, and scored a total of seven touches against Kagami’s eleven. She will be a good partner in team fencing, that is for sure. She certainly was a fine opponent. Her legs ache a little when she heads back to the tiers. Mother has a slight frown on her face, Father is checking his phone, and Hongo winks at her as she walks past her. Her opponent doesn’t last five minutes.

The sound of regular footstep fills the court, Kagami doesn’t need to look up to know that the President of the Japan Fencing Federation, Mr. Arai, has arrived. She immediately straightens up to meet his eyes, and she thinks she sees a hint of amusement there. Her memories of him go years back, and he has always been a slight, balding man. The patches of grey on his beard are becoming more pronounced every time she sees him. Mr. Ota gets up and motions for the older man to take his seat, the two chat for a little while. But she shouldn’t be watching them, she has more important things to focus on. She breathes in and out, slow and steady, loosens her shoulders What has she learned about her opponent over the five hours she’s been here?

“Reina Hongo, Kagami Tsurugi,” President Arai says. “Show me what you can do.”

He’ll be the referee this time, it seems. How fitting. Hongo leads the way to the piste, Kagami follows calmly. She owns this place, she has trained for this all her life, this is but a mere formality. If she fails, if she ends up second best, it will all have been for nothing. She puts her fencing mask on, gives her opponent a firm handshake and readies herself. She must have planned this encounter as well, they have never met before but her being from Hokkaido probably had a role to play in that.What could Hongo assume she’ll do?

“En garde! Prêts?”

That’s not right, he hasn’t made the agreement. When it’s only girls, it’s “prêtes” and not “prêts”. But she is ready for this all the same.

“Allez!”

She lunges and at the last second flicks her wrist. Hongo sidesteps the attack and extends her sword arm… She is a few centimetres away from Kagami’s fencing mask, not a touch, still enough to dissuade any good fencer from getting any closer. Only, Kagami knows she isn’t merely good. Her sabre presses against Hongo’s as she advances, the girl recoils, their blades still touching. Excellent footwork, annoyingly quick… But she should watch for her arms a little more carefully. The scoring box blinks red. Hongo is the one to attack next, and of course, her timing has to be impeccable. Kagami is a millisecond too late, and it makes all the difference. The scoring box blinks green. She won’t make that mistake again.

This is what all bouts should be like, a conversation between fencers. When President Arai announces that three minutes have passed, it’s a tie, three touches each. Hongo used to be a dancer, just like her… Talk about skills transferability. This is it, this is a matter of tempo. They’ll dance. Oh, her younger self would be proud of her. One, two, one two three four… She feints, attacks and as expected, Hongo spins out of the way, her sabre ready for a downward slash… Only this isn’t a waltz or ballet, this is jazz, which makes her one beat too early. her attack misses its mark completely and Kagami knows she has secured a touch, perhaps more. The scoring box blinks red, once, then twice, before Hongo finally understands and gets a hit of her own.

The girl tries to catch up with her. It’s no use When Hongo lunges at her (one two three), she parries and ripostes before the fourth beat. When Hongo tries to take control over her blade, she pushes in the opposite direction. Kagami has a counter for each of the girl’s move, now that she has figured her out. Rather than stepping back as Hongo advances, she goes forward to meet her and the thrust of her sword connects with her opponent’s lamé. The gap between them is too big now, and she won’t let Hongo close it. They are done dancing, and she soars. This was… Good. Kagami almost doesn’t want this to end.

She can barely hear Mr. Arai’s voice as he takes her wrist and puts her hand up. Exhaustion washes through her and when she takes off her fencing mask, her hair is a mess and sweat is dripping down her nose. Father looks proud, Mother is reserved, the people on the tiers are stunned. Hongo seems… Satisfied with herself? Mr. Arai whispers something in her ear she can’t make sense of, while Mrs. Arisugawa and the two other judges clap. Oh. Right, she is meant to dine with them all afterwards, isn’t she, and before that there will be that whole press op… And her clothes are still in the locker room, alongside all she needs to make herself presentable.

The gold medal is right where it should be, around her neck, and she isn’t sure if she is happy about it or relieved. Either way, she knows she couldn’t have done any better than that, and it might just be enough for Mother and her grandparents. Their family name will be in the papers tomorrow, with one or two paragraphs and a picture of her on the podium. More importantly for her, her future is secure, she knows with certainty that she will spend the next twenty, maybe thirty years of her life doing something she likes. Someone hands her a small trophy that will fit nicely with the others on her shelf. She could really use a shower. When they finally let her walk to the locker room, Mother says something along the lines of “get changed, do not make us wait,” and takes the trophy from her. It’s nice to see that she can only react negatively to things, at least there's some consistency to it…

The shower soothes her soreness and brings her back to her senses. She doesn’t stay there for too long. She scrubs herself clean quickly before she goes back to the bench where she has put her bag. So… Dress, or suit? Indecisiveness has no place here, especially with all these people expecting her to arrive so soon. She has worn M. Agreste’s creation multiple times already, and besides, it is a pain to put on, she would need someone to help her zip it all the way up, her arms and shoulders simply don’t work that way. The trousers and shirt go first. Marinette must have infused the fabric with kwami magic, because she feels a little warmer when she puts the blazer on. Would that justify a selfie? But she’ll check her phone some other time. She makes sure to turn off the light as she leaves the locker room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> So that was something, uh? Don't worry, next chapter should take us back to France!
> 
> I'll see you in the next one! In the meantime, unionise, don't forget to wash your hands and to stay hydrated!


	6. Seism

“And so he’s offering me an internship!”

They may be a few kilometres away from each other, and yet Kagami can picture Marinette jumping up and down with glee. Her good mood is contagious, even over the phone. All that fencing with these older students has left her feeling tired. It has ended a little late today, and she is stuck in the car, waiting for the traffic light to turn green. And so, having her friend call her is a nice change of pace, especially with that kind of news.

“Well, it’s only one day a week,” Marinette continues more soberly, “ on Tuesdays, for a couple of hours, and I’m not sure what I’m gonna be doing precisely, I mean his assistant, you know, Mlle Sancœur, sent me a whole dossier and I haven’t read it yet, but…”

“You deserve it,” Kagami smiles. “You really do. I am really happy for you!”

Some name-searching has led her to an interesting discovery, Marinette’s blog, where she has posted all of her fashion design projects since she was ten. Though her first tries were endearingly amateurish, her latest pieces are impressive, a more modern spin on a cheongsam, a leather jacket, a nice backpack she would definitely buy if she had the chance… And it certainly explains why Marinette smells like coffee and looks more tired the few times they’ve managed to see each other. She keeps repeating that everything is alright, that she has found a way to balance all of her responsibilities. Kagami suspects her techniques involves staying up very late and becoming a caffeine addict to make up for that lack of sleep. She can’t say she is happy with that, but apparently there is nothing to be concerned about. Nothing she could say could change the girl’s mind anyway.

“It’s all thanks to you!” Marinette exclaims.

“How so?” Kagami hasn’t mentioned Marinette in front of Adrien’s father, not once, in fact she has been careful to avoid the complicated topics like school, Mme Agreste’s whereabouts, the akuma attacks… She can’t imagine what making an enemy out of this man could lead to, he still makes her uneasy even though she’s seen him once or twice a week for about two months now.

“He saw the pictures, you and all the big names from the fencing federation… Adrien wanted to know where your suit came from, right? I guess M. Agreste asked him to ask you that.”

“It did catch a few eyes,” Kagami nods. That makes sense, Adrien isn’t all that curious about fashion, for a model. He wants to become a scientist, in what field in particular he isn’t sure, but if he gets a say in the matter, he won’t take over Gabriel. He certainly wouldn’t have cared about her suit. “All thanks to your hard work.”

“Not just that, you were beautiful in it,” Marinette says. “I have a few ideas of dresses that you may like… Hey, you might be my muse!”

Kagami is glad they aren’t in the same room, because she has turned a very bright shade of red. Marinette is just joking, of course. Well, she can joke too. “You could require my presence, then, I am sure M. Agreste wouldn’t mind.”

“I’d rather it stayed just you and me,” Marinette laughs. “Well anyway, gotta leave you, _homework_ is waiting for me, my marine biology tutor just whispered me an idea and I wanna experiment on it tonight.”

That means Guardians duties, and that is the part of Marinette’s life she is the most secretive about. She gives away bits and pieces of information from time to time, but she’s nowhere as precise as when they talk about her superhero life. She really is willing to do it all on her own. Well, with Chat Noir’s help, and the power of the Mouse Miraculous. They haven’t recruited any new heroes since the Bourgeois debacle from two months ago — the mass akumatisations the brat has caused have been more destructive than ever but at least that damage can be reversed. In the middle of all of that, Kagami feels useless. She is compromised, so all she can do is listen to Marinette when she needs someone to talk to.

“Talk to you tomorrow!” Marinette says. “Or perhaps just text you, I don’t know yet… My Wednesday afternoon should be free, unless things go… You know. I’ll tell you about these first few hours of internship!”

“Of course,” Kagami replies.

“Excited about your date?” Marinette asks.

“Yes,” Kagami says, and even she knows she doesn’t sound convincing. There is an awkward silence on the other side of the line. “Well… I will see you in five days, then! Good bye!”

“Bye,” Marinette repeats, and with that the call ends.

The car in front of hers finally moves, the rest of the drive home is uninterrupted. Mother isn’t dressed for the evening when she greets her, she is already in her nightgown, all the noise coming from the kitchen can only mean once thing, and she gets the confirmation for that soon after she closes the door. Tonight’s dinner with Adrien and his father has been cancelled due to M. Agreste’s work, apparently, but the table is still booked. Mother says these last words with insistence. It has been a busy week for Adrien, so perhaps a date would be a good idea. Kagami knows he won’t ask her himself, of course, he is still not that great at taking initiatives, and so she texts him. She gets a positive answer a few minutes later.

The new dress is perfect for late spring weather, a beautiful light grey with a slightly darker trim, and it is easier to zip all the way up without help. It looks quite good on her, too. She is to be back for 10:30PM, Mother tells her, even if it’s Adrien she is seeing. That should be doable, a two hour date without either of their parents getting in the way. Oddly enough, the restaurant is close to the Sacré-Cœur, not near the city centre as is usually the case. Kagami doesn’t mind, quite the contrary, she has never been here before. The building is very avant garde, a kind of black angled box in the middle of older-looking apartment buildings, It’s exactly the sort of place M. Agreste would be interested in. She is almost sure they won’t let her in unless she says they have booked a table.

**7:57PM**

**Adrien:** _I’m on my way! My bodyguard says we should arrive in a few minutes, I can’t wait ^^_

He is true to his word, she hardly has to wait at all. When she sees him get out of his car, he has a wide smile on his lips, and he all but runs to kiss her. When that is taken care of — fortunately it isn’t too long for once — he takes a step back, and she can get a closer look at him. His suit is new, the shoes as well, he could wear this outfit on a runaway and it wouldn’t feel out of place.He probably will, come to think of it. There are a couple of blue spots on the side of his right hand, and his smile is even wider than before. He has brought her a red rose, he often does. She’ll find a place for it in her journal. Closing it is getting harder and harder with each new flower she adds there.

“Sorry I’m late… My Japanese teacher kept me longer today,” he tells her. “But he’s happy with my progress, so all that hard work is paying off!”

She supposes it is. Of course Kagami is making assumptions here, but she is almost certain he has reached that point where he knows he has a lot to learn and doesn’t want to make a fool of himself, which explains why he doesn’t try to speak the language as often as before. Knowing how smart he is, they should be able to make small talk in Japanese for Christmas.If she actually reached out to the Tokyo expatriates who live in Paris, it wouldn’t feel like she is losing some of her skills, but she doesn’t get to decide who she is allowed to talk to. Having Adrien be fluent in Japanese would bring her list of people she knows here who can speak her mother’s tongue and aren’t her tutors to two people, instead of just… Well, Mother.

“Keep up the good work, then!” She says. And in Japanese, she adds, “I am looking forward to more conversations with you.”

He must have understood the gist of it, because he nods. “Shall we get in?” he drawls in a faux posh voice.

They do, and as soon as they enter the restaurant, a waiter, dressed in a black turtleneck, recognises Adrien. A table has been set for the two of them, apparently. Kagami lets her gaze wander across the room as she follows the lanky man. The inside fits the outside quite well, tables with sharp angles, walls covered with vertical stripes, black and white, lamps that are made to resemble crystals poking out of the ceiling… Very avant-garde indeed. Another waiter is walking with a platter, on it she can see odd cube-shaped gelatinous… Things… It looks like they’ll be discovering molecular haute cuisine tonight. Of course M. Agreste would like that sort of thing. Whatever he is working on must be important if he is so busy he can’t find the time to be here with them.

Adrien pulls her chair out for her, as he always does. She can’t figure out what to order when they are handed the menus — white letters, a futuristic font on black paper that feels just as fancy as her clothes — and she blames it on the convoluted wording. Adrien looks a little confused as well. The ingredients are named each time, but she has no idea what the final dish might look like… Perhaps it’s the appeal of the place? It’s for an acquired taste, then. In the end, they choose at random, at least Kagami does, and the waiter must have guessed because he quirks a perfectly trimmed eyebrow as he scribbles down on his notepad.

“So how did fencing go?” Adrien asks.

“M. D’Argencourt finally stopped telling everyone about my being Japan’s next star fencer, so quite well,” Kagami smiles.

“It only took him what, two weeks?” Adrien laughs. It’s true that their fencing instructor is proud of his students, and very vocal about it. “He means well, but I think he expects everyone to become champions like you now.”

“I am surprised he chose not to be a coach for the fencing federation here in France, but then again, considering who he is…”

“You read about the one time he tried to become the mayor?”

“I read the story on the Ladyblog… He was not suited for the job, but Mayor Bourgeois being re-elected seems somewhat fraudulent.”

“I am not sure, I mean, I don’t want to assume anything…”

Even though Chloé Bourgeois is no longer his friend, he is always so polite about her and her family. These people really don’t deserve his kindness. There isn’t much more to talk about, their conversation on Wednesday evening — she had seen pictures of the Agreste mansion before but being inside it makes all the difference, it is a cold, vast place, Adrien’s room is so big it isn’t even funny — was quite long and very interesting. Still, she manages to make it last long enough for the waiter to return with a pitcher of water and their food. It’s nice that way, just talking to him about small things with no importance. She certainly likes it better than the kissing. Not that Adrien is a bad kisser, at least she doesn’t suppose so,it’s not like she would know anyway.

“The re-architectured tomato salad for the lady, and the sublimed eggs benedict for the sir, was it?” the waiter asks. They both nod.

This is some funny-looking food to say the least. The tomatoes have not been cut and seem oddly glassy, and the mozzarella is nowhere to be seen, the farfalle are red. Adrien’s eggs are solid yellow cubes. They glance at each other and take a mouthful of… Whatever they might be eating. To Kagami’s surprise, it’s edible, and the dish’s name makes more sense all of a sudden. These tomatoes _are_ the mozzarella, the pasta must be made out of tomato… She has guessed well. It’s not exactly what she wanted, it has the taste of these ingredients for the most part but it doesn’t click with her. But it’ll have to do. Adrien, on the other hand, seems quite satisfied with what’s on his plate. It must be the chemistry enthusiast in him.

“Is there something troubling you?” Kagami asks when the silence is starting to get awkward.

“No, not really,” Adrien lies.

Almost anyone would buy his answer, and a month ago, she would have too. He has his tells, the way he tends to cocks his head ever so slightly to the left when he tries to fool people; he is doing it right now. Has she done something wrong? It doesn’t look like it, so he is probably thinking about that mystery girl he used to have a crush on — though she doubting the “used to” part more and more these days — or some other thing he still isn’t willing to share with her. This is… A little disappointing, a little insulting, too. He can have all the secrets he wants, she certainly hasn’t told him about Marinette’s double life, but at least he should be upfront about it, tell her that he doesn’t want to talk about whatever is on his mind. Or perhaps it’s something he doesn’t want to burden her with. He simply won’t talk about it, though, so she nods and smiles and goes back to eating her food.

They end up sharing a kind of globe-shaped chocolate mousse for dessert, that tastes more like passionfruit than actual chocolate. It’s fine. The decor is more interesting than the food itself, Kagami has to say. They make small talk again, and she learns that a new jazz club is opening in Saint-Germain-en-Laye soon and M. Agreste is the one to design the personnel’s clothing. Adrien telling her this means she will be invited to the opening for sure, and Mother as well. She reaches for the boy’s hand and gives it a small squeeze, as she knows she should, it seems to make him happy. This might be their best date yet. Well, she thinks that every time. It’s been almost two months, she has learned when each gesture needs to take place for things to be perfect. She’ll find some enjoyment in it someday, she tries to fool herself. She is too much of a coward to walk away.

“Marinette told me she would become your father’s new intern,” she says.

“He asked me about her before making the final decision, only he didn’t use the word intern,” Adrien smiles.

“Did he now?” That sounds unlike the man’s business-like ways.

“He said ‘apprentice’ if I remember well! And the very few apprentices he recruits usually work for Gabriel later on, so chances are Marinette will…”

And then the ground begins to shake, Adrien tenses and water spills out of their glasses, the lights go out and she can hear the noise of a hundred car alarms setting off. There is a lot of indistinct chatter around them. Instinctively, she readies herself to go under a table, but there is no aftershock, only a low, thrumming sound. The lamps turn back on. The waiters laugh nervously, Adrien checks his phone impassively, and foots the bill with a golden credit card; it’s over for tonight, and it isn’t hard to guess what has just happened. How long until people rush out of the restaurant with screams of fear? They should go somewhere safe, but instead he walks her to her car hurriedly thanks her for the date and wishes her a good night, kisses her and slams the car door shut.

Her route is pre-recorded, all she needs to do is sit back and fasten her seat belt. She sends Adrien a message asking him to text her back when he is home. Way to end a date… Only then does she remember that she has left the rose he gave her at the restaurant. Some things are more urgent than that, she’ll just scribble one instead, she’ll get another flower for their next date anyway. Marinette should have things under control, she can no longer hear anything loud in the distance. It must have been a noisy but mostly harmless akuma, then. Ladybug should be summoning her power of restoration soon, it should be there any minute now. She might as well put on some music to lighten up the mood, she thinks as the synthetic voice informs her that they are in Boulevard des Batignolles.

The road a dozen metres ahead of her splits in half and the car stops dead in its track, Kagami’s head almost slams against the front seat, knocking the air out of her lungs. Smoke is rising from the crack, keeping her from seeing much of anything, but she can make out a vague, hulking shape heaving itself up. The part of her brain that is still working rationally tells her that the thrum from earlier was that creature’s howl, and just in case she doubted it, she hears it again. She can’t get the doors to open, no matter how hard she tries. Of course it won’t unlock until she has reached her destination, she should have remembered that. All she can do is watch what is happening outside.

A gust of wind blows the cloud of debris away, and sure enough, here is Ladybug, or rather Dragon Bug, with Chat Noir close behind her emerging from the fissure. They have seen better days, clearly, their faces and hair are covered in greyish dust, Dragon Bug has a slight limp and Chat Noir appears to be having a hard time getting to his feet. Hawk Moth’s newest champion has drills for hands, a kind of muzzle, seemingly no eyes as far as Kagami can tell… A mole of some sorts? And it’s surprisingly quick, almost too quick for Dragon Bug to dodge. Bile rises in Kagami’s throat as she watches the heroine roll out of the way of an attack, only for the monster’s shoulder to slam against her, sending her crashing against a shop’s window. Chat Noir’s baton isn’t doing anything as he tries to fend of the thing, he isn’t using his Cataclysm either…

Dragon Bug is up again, summoning her Lucky Charm — a small object Kagami can’t quite see— and yelling instructions at her partner who simply nods. They jump behind a car and… Push it inside the hole they have just come out of? Are they trying to block their enemy’s escape route? Whatever it is they’re doing, the monsterretaliates, swinging its arms around; the trees the drills touch are turned into wood shavings, the sidewalks are torn away in a shower of sparks, a chunk of stone flies mere millimetres away from Dragon Bug’s face, leaving a cut on her right cheek. Kagami freezes. She isn’t sure she has ever seen the heroine get seriously hurt like this before, let alone bleed… And she is just sitting here, doing nothing because there is nothing for her to do.

The plan seems to be working, still, and the monster can’t get back inside the crack it has come out of, it can only force its way back under the surface, and it does, body trembling as it buries its hands in the concrete… And the ground is vibrating again, tiles are falling off the roofs and Dragon Bug is… Where is she? A blinding flash forces Kagami to look away, and immediately after the ear-piercing roar of thunder rings out. The beast’s howl is replaced with a whine… and the ground stops shaking. The drills must have been damaged by something, probably, it’s the only explanation Kagami can come up with, and she isn’t entirely wrong. The mechanism clearly isn’t working anymore. It doesn’t make it harmless, but certainly less of a danger.

The akuma staggers backwards with a wail, just as Chat Noir’s paw is engulfed in darkness… And Kagami understands Dragon Bug’s plan as she reappears behind the monster, readying her sword for a thrust . This is risky, almost reckless, but if it works, it will be worth it. The giant yelps as Dragon Bug’s attack lands, and turns around to retaliate, only to face… Thin air. Its target is out of reach by a mere centimetres. It advances with a growl, flailing about, and soon it is a few steps away from the precipice it had come out of. The gap has been closed thanks to these cars they have thrown there earlier, but they wouldn’t resist a Cataclysm. It would be a long fall from here to whatever is underneath… The metro. Of course it has come from the underground, it may have been an underground worker at first…

Chat Noir’s hand touches the car nearest to him, just as Dragon Bug readies herself to jump away from the beast making its way to the middle of the trap. Rust spreads from vehicle to vehicle and they all In a last effort, the akuma reaches its arm and swings at Dragon Bug’s leg and makes her lose her balance with a sickening snapping sound. She doesn’t make it to safety, she doesn’t even make the jump, they both disappear, swallowed by the chasm.

Everything is silent.

And then Chat Noir screams Ladybug’s name, and Kagami’s breathing gets shakier and shakier as she tries to force the door open again. There has to be a button somewhere, a lever that would unlock the door, something, anything. She can’t find it. She fumbles for her keys and stabs them at the window to break it. It’s no use, she isn’t making as much as a dent in the glass, it’s bulletproof… She tries to kick the windshield… There is nothing she can do, this is hopeless and she knows it; she kicks harder.

Light starts pouring out of the crack, faint at first and then brighter, and with it a swarm of ladybugs that soon washes over everything. When Kagami opens her eyes again, the road is fixed, the trees returned to their original state, and Ladybug is standing just where the hole used to be, her face unreadable. Chat Noir doesn’t come to bump her fist, he seems shocked. Ladybug’s lips move, Kagami can’t make out the words, not really, perhaps “gotta go?”… And then their eyes meet and Kagami’s stomach drops. The heroine is the first to look away, she throws her yo-yo and swings to a rooftop. Chat Noir mustn’t have seen her, he disappears soon after. Kagami lets out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding. The car resumes its drive as though nothing has happened.

* * *

Ironically enough, she makes it home in time. Mother is already in her bedroom, she knows she isn’t allowed there, and judging by the absence of noise, she must be fast asleep. Adrien has answered her message some ten minutes ago, she finds out when she checks her phone. He is well, but a little tired, according to his text. It’s a relief he wasn’t caught in the fight, considering how incompetent his bodyguard has proved himself to be. Marinette doesn’t answer her call, or her text. She must need some time to recover, Kagami rationalises. Her wound was gone, so that must mean she isn’t hurt. Whenever they see each other face to face again, she’ll ask her to let her help more.

She takes a quick shower, brushes her teeth, makes sure to keep the door closed to not wake Mother up and goes back to her room as noiselessly as she can. She writes a little in her journal, too many things to put there and she can’t find the proper words for all of it, she erases entire sentences and ends up slamming the notebook shut. It’s getting late, she might as well stop now and hope that things will be easier to process in the morning. Tomorrow is a Saturday, which means no tutors, only kendo training, and a lot of time to reflect on what she has seen tonight. She’ll need it. Only she can’t get her eyes to close, her head is too full of thoughts and dread and worry, the breathing exercises don’t help.

When her phone buzzes, she all but pounces on it and accepts the call right away.

“Can I… Can I come over?” Marinette’s voice has never sounded so weak, so tired. “I… I can’t sleep. I need someone to talk to, I…”

“Where are you right now?” Kagami asks. With Mother fast asleep, she could sneak outside to find her friend.

“Your balcony is the one with the flowers?” That is an odd question, is she…

“That would be my neighbour from downstairs,” Kagami answers as she makes her way to the living room on the tip of her toes. “Do you want me to open up for you?”

“How do you know?”

“I think I see you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't wait for next week's chapter!
> 
> If you haven't watched She-Ra's last season please do, it's just great, I cried my heart out, happy tears, this is the level of masterful writing I wanna be able to reach one day.
> 
> In the meantime, be nice to each other and wear a mask if you have to go outside, will you? And try to keep your distances with other folks if you can help it, physically (not socially).


	7. A helping hand

The ice-cold wind whipping at her face takes Kagami off guard as she opens the French window. She steps back and watches as Ladybug lands on her balcony without a sound.

“Thanks,” she whispers when Kagami shuts the French window behind her. “I like your nightgown.”

“Please,” Kagami murmurs. “I said I’d be there to listen to you if you needed me to.” Well, it was in a text, but that still counts. She decides to ignore the comment about her clothes.

“It feels… Less personal over the phone, less real,” Ladybug speaks in muted tones. “And being alone now… I don’t think it’s a good idea for me.”

Kagami understands what she means perfectly. She leads her friend through the corridor, careful not to make a sound. It would almost be exciting, if not for how worn out Ladybug looks; what has happened mere hours ago isn’t memories just yet, it’s too fresh, too painful, for the both of them. She has left the door to her room ajar, she pushes it open and the moment Ladybug crosses the threshold, her transformation wears off. Marinette seems even paler now that she is lit by something other than the yellowish streetlights. She closes the door and Kagami can’t help but be nervous as the other girl looks around the room. Marinette doesn’t say anything.

Not that there would be much to say, Kagami is well aware that her room is the most nondescript thing there is, a plain bookshelf, a plain bed, a plain desk with an equally plain chair, a plain wardrobe, all white against a white wallpaper, her walls are bare, the only bit of decorating would be the trophies on top of the shelf, it’s clean, the automated vacuum cleaner has done its job well. Her room should change before the end of the month, now that they are sure they will stay in France for the foreseeable future, they have bought new furniture and they have hired people to take care of everything, but for now it is as bland as can be. She must say, Marinette’s silence is making her a little self-conscious… But they aren’t here to discuss the state of her room, or her pyjamas.

“You can sit on my bed if you want,” Kagami offers. “Unless you’d like the desk chair better?”

“The chair,” Marinette replies. “I’ve just crashed your place, so I won’t crash your bed as well.” She looks away. “I shouldn’t even be here to begin with…”

That remarks makes Kagami frown. Marinette is trying to postpone the moment when they’ll have no other choice but to talk about the Boulevard des Batignolles events, and that must be her diversion, perhaps she is hoping to buy more time to figure out a way to excuse herself later. Or this is something else entirely, and considering what has happened to her only a couple of hours ago, it’s a surprise Marinette is still holding it together. It must be a bit of both of these things, Kagami guesses. She won’t judge her friend for that, this isn’t why she has let her in.

“Earlier, you told me you needed someone to talk to and I believe you,” she says softly. “Of course you should be here.” There’s enough room on the bed for her to sit next to Marinette, and so she does. “You can talk to me when you feel ready for that, I won’t kick you out if you’d rather not. The bed is more comfortable than the chair.”

“I… Thank you,” Marinette finally mumbles after a long minute. “I think… I think I almost died tonight, like, really almost died… Usually, it’s just one close call and then I figure something out and I save the day and everything is okay again… But I’m not and tomorrow it’ll only get worse and… I had to crawl from under this… Thing, with with a broken leg and to get to where the butterfly was and my Miraculous was beeping and my left arm just wouldn’t move. I almost let Paris get destroyed because I wasn’t good enough.

“What if… What if the next akuma is even stronger than that? I can’t just say ‘sorry, I’ll have to sit this one out, you handle it on your own, good luck with that’ or anything like that, this isn’t me… But I’ll be no use to anyone dead either. Chat Noir does what he can, but wearing another Miraculous really messed him up, I can’t put him in more danger like that, I mean, we’re meant to look out for each other, we must win but I can’t afford to cause him hurt… I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“No you are not,” Kagami says as softly as she can, and she squeezes Marinette’s hand. This is a lot, she hadn’t heard any of it before, and it’s hard for her to keep her voice in check. She feels so stupid… She had no idea but she should have known. Of course she had assumed that Marinette sometimes left a few details out when she told her what had happened after each new attack but this… This is worse than she could have guessed. And yet the signs were all there, the overenthusiastic messages with all these emojis… She’s been such an idiot for not seeing through it all.

“All this Guardian stuff…” Marinette continues, “I can’t figure out half of the things on my own, and most of the things the Kwami tell me I just have no time to learn properly, I almost got the hang on that tracking thing and then the akuma was there and I don’t know if I’d be able to do it again. I’m not cut out for the job, I wasn’t ready for this… Master Fu never prepared me for that, he told me a few things and just left me with a letter, a box full of jewellery and a whole city to protect…

“It’s my fault he got compromised in the first place, it’s my fault he had to sacrifice himself and I can’t live up to what he was expecting from me. I’m not even sure I can defeat Hawk Moth and Mayura at this point, they’ve got the spell book, they could raise an army in the blink of an eye and there’s nothing I could do to stop them. All the people I’ve chosen to become heroes before, Hawk Moth knows who they are now. We were so naive, so sure we’d never get unmasked we picked the people closest to us… I don’t want to burden anyone or put their family in danger.”

Seeing her friend with tears rolling down her cheeks and the corners of her mouth twitching, makes Kagami’s heart ache and her stomach churn with anger at the old man, at Hawk Moth and Mayura at fate if it even exists. She would like nothing more than to comfort her now, but Marinette isn’t done talking just yet.

“And I can’t…” the girl swallows thickly.“I can’t do anything right, I have to keep up with my fashion design schedule otherwise I’d just get rusty and stagnate but half of my projects are merely passable and the other half is worse. I am supposed to be the class rep but I just can’t find the time to make sure everyone is okay and I can barely stay awake in school, I try my best not to cancel my plans with my friends but every time is a gamble, Alya has noticed I’ve been out of it, she had set up a date for me and Luka and I just left in the middle of it, it’s been weeks and I still haven’t called him, and now I’ll have to add the internship to all of that and it’s an opportunity I can’t turn down, he hasn’t hired anyone in years and I thought I’d be happy about it but the more I think of it… It’s just more responsibilities I’m not sure I’ll be able to handle.

“It’s… I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep on doing this much longer. If something like Boulevard des Batignolles repeats itself, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep everyone safe. I don’t wanna be a failure, I don’t wanna disappoint anyone, I don’t wanna let people down but if I slip up, when I slip up, I know I will. I’m… I’m just so tired.”

They have hugged like that before, once, during the Bourgeois debacle in the middle of the Grand Paris’ deserted hall. It had been a tearful embrace, then, a confused one with muddled feelings and uncertainty for the both of them. Now, as she wraps her arms around Marinette’s shoulders and feels the smaller girl’s chest rise and fall shakily as she tries to stop sobbing, Kagami is sure of one thing: she won’t let anything like what she’s witnessed tonight happen ever again, she won’t let Marinette burn herself out, she won’t let her do this alone, she won’t just stay in the sidelines, not anymore. The room is quiet for a while and neither of them speaks.

“You are not a failure,” she whispers when Marinette has calmed down. “You are the bravest person I know, the greatest fashion designer I have ever met and my best friend. You are not going to let anyone down. I will help you any way I can to help you make sure you won’t.”

“I don’t wanna—”

“You won’t be a burden for me,” she cuts in. “You are not forcing me to do anything, it’s my decision.”

“But you’re already helping me, you listen to me, there’s nothing more you can do,” Marinette interjects. Her heart isn’t in it, not really.

“Listening to you does not make you less overworked, or less sleep-deprived when you get up in the morning, it does not make your battles any less dangerous,” Kagami replies. “Please let me be here for you, truly here, not a voice over the phone or a girl you see every other week if you’re lucky.”

“You’re going to be in danger because of me and I don’t want that,” Marinette pleas.

“If I am to get in trouble, it will be because I have decided so,” Kagami retorts. “If I have to be in danger to make sure nothing like what happened tonight ever happens to you again, then so be it, it is an easy choice to make.”

“I’m not letting you put on the Dragon necklace again,” Marinette shakes her head, “you could get hurt and if Hawk Moth makes the connection between the two of us…”

“Then I won’t wear it, there are other ways I could help you that involve neither being a sidekick nor just being your confidante.”

That doesn’t seem like the sort of answer Marinette expected, because she opens her mouth and closes it immediately after. Kagami guesses her friend must have played that sort of conversation a hundred times in her head but always with the same successful outcome. She isn’t sure she likes the implications of that, it makes the fact that she’s apparently made a point Marinette hadn’t considered before seem irrelevant. Because that can only mean her friend had considered asking for her help at some point before convincing herself not to, doesn’t it? And she may just refuse again tonight.

“… Alright,” Marinette finally sighs. “You’re right, I’m just… I hate that you have to see me like that.”

“And I hated watching what happened to you,” Kagami says. She gives Marinette’s shoulder a small squeeze. “And there is no need for you to apologised for that. You could not have predicted any of it, and no, you are not a crybaby.”

“Okay,” Marinette whispers. “So, what did you have in mind?”

“We should start tomorrow,” Kagami offers. “Kendo practice keeps me busy all morning but my afternoon is free and convincing Mother should be simple enough. If this is fine by you too, that is. ”

“I’m not sure if…” Marinette stops halfway through her sentence,“Yeah, tomorrow afternoon should be okay, I mean my homework is piling up on my desk but I’ll just sleep less, then.”

“No you won’t. And you should rest now,” Kagami says. “I’d be happy to sleep on the couch but then Mother would ask questions, she usually goes to my room on Saturdays to make sure I have am awake, and if she found you in my bed, well…”

“Of course,” Marinette nods, “I get that. Well, I think I’d better get going now. Sorry I kept you up this long… What time is it?”

Almost 2:30 a.m. as it turns out. The city is always awake, of course, still, when Kagami opens the French window for her friend to get out, the streets are even emptier than before, there is the distant sound of a car driving by but not much else, and certainly no bystanders that could take pictures. Their surrounding seem safe enough not to get caught, at least this once. They don’t exchange pleasantries, or kiss each other goodnight, what would be the point of that if they’re going to see each other in a dozen of hours? And yet Kagami can’t say she isn’t a little disappointed as she watches Ladybug jump off the balcony and disappear in the cloudy night sky. She tiptoes back to her room and all but collapses on her bed. Sleep claims her immediately.

* * *

She wakes up to the pitter patter of raindrops against her windowpane. Her alarm clock hasn’t rung yet, Mother isn’t up, this moment belongs to her. She closes her eyes again and listens to the noise. This is soothing, somehow. She wonders if Marinette is already up, if she is listening to the noise as well. Chances are she isn’t, and it’s for the best, she needs all the rest she can get and it is too early for anyone to be up, even too early for her. The alarm clock has to blare and ruin the atmosphere of course, and she curses herself for putting it so far from the bed that she needs to get up to stop it. It’s a good tactic not to oversleep, but she could have used five more minutes. Or an hour or two.She stumbles to the bathroom to splash water on her face. The girl looking back at her in the mirror is obviously tired, but determined too.

No outdoor kendo practice today, Mother tells her as they have breakfast in the kitchen. The Jardin des Tuileries has been turned into a paddling pool, and though their glorious ancestors were not afraid of getting their clothes wet, it would simply be counterproductive, in Mother’s words. They will make up for this missed session on Sunday if the weather gets better. Instead, they go through heaps of paperwork and letters that have piled up over the week. She does the reading, Mother dictates the answers impatiently. Father’s text-to-speech glasses project has yet to be approved by his company’s committee, had it been the case, she wouldn’t have to be Mother’s eyes. The administrative matters are dealt with, the invitations are answered.

At last comes a letter from the Japan Fencing Federation signed by Mr. Arai himself, in which he writes that he approves of her training under M. D’Argencourt but hopes that she will return to their home country once she turns eighteen, with the promise of younger, more competent instructors. This is great news, the confirmation that they will stay in Paris for three more years. The missive ends with a promise that Japan’s first place in sabre fencing will be restored thanks to the Tsurugi bloodline. That last line is complete nonsense and Kagami is almost sure it was solely added to please Mother. If it is the case, it does its job perfectly. Now is the best chance she’ll get to bring up the more difficult topic successfully.

“Mother, since we are certain I will go to school here this September, there is something I need to ask of you,” she says, as neutrally as she can.

“I am listening,” Mother answers, and there is still a hint of mirth in her voice.

“Yesterday, Adrien brought up that his class representative is not doing so great in school, and that she requires tutoring.” Not a complete lie, they did talk about Marinette, and she is probably failing school right now. “She is a friend of his, and she would be willing to pay someone to help her with arithmetics and biology. I told Adrien I needed your approval first, but I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to become familiar with the French system, and you would no longer have to give me an allowance.”

“My, look at you, making plans on your own!” Mother laughs. “This is quite sound. I must say I am surprised! Adrien does bring the best in you! And to think that I feared he would be a bad influence on you. When would it start?”

“This afternoon, from two to five,” Kagami says. “It is not very far, I can walk there.”

“If this gets in the way of your training in any way, if you underperform, you are to stop immediately.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Good. I believe we are done with the paperwork, we will digitize it all tomorrow. You are to go back to your room while I deal with the accounting. Your father has sent me calculations he would like me to check, too… Not that you would understand them, of course. Lunch should be served in two hours.”

“Yes, Mother.”

No new messages she needs to answer, not yet at least. Perfect. And so, Kagami sets up an alarm, puts on her pyjamas again, shuts the blinds and goes under the covers. There she is, taking a nap, and it’s not even 10 AM. She needs it. It isn’t long before her eyes close. When she opens them blearily again, it is almost noon, Adrien has texted her twice to tell her that he has a photoshoot scheduled for the day, Marinette once to ask her when she intends to come. I has stopped raining, at least for now. The smell of curry is almost overwhelming when she enters the kitchen. Not the cook processor’s most successful program, in her mind, but it is nourishing nevertheless. Mother is in the living roomon, talking to someone in Japanese over the phone, presumably a friend of hers if her tone is anything to go by, or perhaps… Yes, that’s her parents.

Kagami knows better than to disturb her, these calls can go on forever, Father used to be even worse. She will have lunch on her own, then. She doesn’t mind, it gives her time to think about the afternoon and to refine the ideas she already has. When she puts her dish in the dishwasher, Mother has yet to end her call, they must all be gloating over the details of the letter on both sides of the line. Good for them. If she is lucky, Kagami knows they might still be at it when she leaves. She packs a bag with all the things a good arithmetics tutor should bring just in case Mother checks, sends Marinette a text asking her if she could pick her up and waits sitting at her desk with a book she has picked at random without even looking at the cover. The _Book of Five Rings_? That is the sort of thing Mother would enjoy. Still, it helps pass time, she supposes.

“yeah sure, on my way,” Marinette’s answer reads. It is a quarter to two, and if she wants to keep her tutorship story straight… She makes sure to turn off the light before walking out of her room, and to make as much noise as she can when she closes the door, just to let Mother know she is leaving. She ties her shoelaces slowly, gets down the stairs even slower and sits on the steps; waiting for her friend at her flat’s door would be a bizarre thing to do. Not that she has to wait for too long. Her phone buzzes, and after that it’s only a matter of seconds before she runs outside to see Marinette standing on the other side of the street.

It’s a relief to find that she looks a little less tired and a little less miserable than she was some twelve hours ago. Kagami immediately takes her place on the bicycle rack and Marinette starts pedalling. Rolling on pavement isn’t pleasant, fortunately it’s only for a little while. It’s a shorter ride than she had expected, it only takes her a few second to understand that they have taken a shortcut, and though it’s not quite the scenic road along the banks of the Seine, it’s a judicious choice, the sky looks menacing, heavy with dark clouds and the promise of a storm. Kagami feels the first drop of rain on her shirt while Marinette locks the bike, and so she edges a little closer to the building. They wave at M. Dupain and Mme Cheng from the other side of the bakery’s window — she has yet to talk to them — and hurry inside.

“Sorry for the mess,” Marinette mumbles as she pushes the trapdoor open, and Kagami is sure she has heard her say that before.

“I am also here for that,” she replies with what she hopes reads as an encouraging smile.

If she has to be honest with herself, she had expected worse. It is a mess, the desk in particular, but it isn’t too dirty, there aren’t too many things on the floor and so she might be able to pace up and down without accidentally stepping on anything breakable. They start by making neat piles of things, notebooks and fashion design patterns don’t go in the same pile. After that, it’s mostly a matter of putting these things back where they used to be, Kagami learns a lot about Marinette’s taste in novels, she has a thing for adventure stories and romance and that she arranges her books in an alphabetical order. They are quite efficient, the two of them, and in just twenty minutes, Marinette’s room looks like a room again.

“I shouldn’t have let it get out of hand,” Marinette groans. “It’s not like I could ask the kwamis for help, I’m not Cinderella or anything, it’s not like I can sing and convince them to do my laundry.”

“What do you do with them?” Kagami can’t help but ask.

“Well some of them trust me,” Marinette shrugs, “some others not so much just yet, so I mostly just… Talk to them, I guess? I’m a Guardian without a spell book and even if I had it I wouldn’t know how to read it, Hawk Moth and Mayura also have the translated version… So I have to start from scratch. Wayzz, that’s the Turtle, remembers bits and pieces since he was with the old man quite often but otherwise it’s… Quite frankly, it’s a slog.”

There’s not much Kagami can do about that. “You could always bribe the Kwamis with food,” she says. “Well, I guess you gave that a chance already.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to find dead mice for Sass anytime soon,” Marinette scrunches her nose. “But I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try again with the others, the dog kwami certainly was receptive to that one.”

Then, it’s simple, all they need to do is… Kagami stops herself before she can be foolish enough to suggest they steal back the spell book and whatever the translated version is on. Of course they wouldn’t be able to, for that they’d need to discover where Hawk Moth’s lair is, and probably unveil his civilian identity as well. They wouldn’t even be here sorting things out together if that was feasible, and life would be much easier, at least for one of them. What else has Marinette thought about already… Tracking akumas, done, she already has an app for that, recruiting new heroes seems incredibly risky and Kagami knows her social circle and Marinette’s are basically one and the same in France. One thing she could help her with, on the other hand…

“How far behind are you when it comes to your schoolwork?”

Marinette’s wince says it all.

“I understand that school is not exactly your number one priority, so here is what I propose,” Kagami says. “You leave that up to me.”

“I don’t think you could fool the teachers into thinking you’re me,” Marinette objects. “Unless you suddenly shrink, get blue contact lenses and a wig, and even then it still wouldn’t work.”

“And I would have to be in the same room as Chloé Bourgeois for hours, my cover would not last. I sincerely do not know how you manage,” Kagami states. “What I meant was, I could help you with your homework, I would take Adrien’s notes and your textbooks and make a reader’s digest version of your lessons.”

“Wouldn’t that be a lot of extra work for you?” Marinette raises an eyebrow. “It’s not that it’s a bad idea per say, but…”

“I cannot say I live the most exciting life,” Kagami says. “I am rarely allowed outside on my own, I only fence for three or four hours a day, my tutors only visit me once a week each and the rest of the time I read books and exercise. I can easily replace some of that reading with some more work and it would not bother me in the slightest.”

“You know I’m going to feel terribly guilty about that arrangement, right?” Marinette moans.

“You feel guilty about letting other people help you in general, I think,” Kagami observes. “Look at it this way: it will give you more time to sleep and to work on things you actually like.”

“Ouch!” Marinette chuckles. “Got any more plans I can’t refuse like this one?”

“You said I was your muse… You could invite me again on Mondays and Wednesdays, for… Creative reasons,” Kagami jokes back. Though really she wishes they could see each other as often as before she started dating Adrien. She shouldn’t be thinking about what she’ll miss, she should be enjoying what she has.

They go over all the things school-related during the next fifty minutes, sitting side by side at Marinette’s desk. Kagami decides she likes her friend’s handwriting, her own is quite neat, too but her letters aren’t as round and pleasant to look at, the doodles in the margins are quite amusing too, most of the time. However, Marinette’s notes are lacking in clarity and in content, half of her sentences aren’t finished, some don’t make sense at all, some are just the phonetic restitution of whatever the teacher must have said, which leads to weird words and approximate spelling. No wonder Marinette feels like she is lagging behind, she truly is. She is smart enough to pass most of her classes, but her marks aren’t all that great. Hopefully that will change thanks to their hard work.

When Marinette offers to pay her, she refuses. “You are not a charity case, I am not doing this because I pity you, but because I said I would help you,” she simply says. That ends that discussion.

And that leaves them with an hour an a half before the end of that “tutoring session”.

“I should really be working on a dress or working something,” Marinette grumbles, “but I’m all out of juice.”

“And you feel guilty about that? I know the feeling,” Kagami says. “I think being out of juice from time to time is fine, especially with what happened yesterday.”

Way to ruin the mood, Tsurugi.

“So…” Marinette tries to change the topic. “Do you wanna watch something?”

“Anything! I mean, yes, I would like that, as long as…” Kagami starts.

“…You make it home in time, I know,” Marinette finishes. “C’mon! I’m sure there is cake downstairs.”

There is no cake downstairs. There are, however, all the things they need if they wished to bake one, which would be a great introduction to cooking, especially with the daughter of Paris’ most sought-after bakers to make sure everything is perfect. Kagami realises her train of thoughts might be easier to read than she’d believed because the next thing she knows, Marinette throws an apron at her. It really shows that her friend has spent a lot of time watching and helping her parents, she is frighteningly kick to get the ingredients ready and she has memorised entire recipes by heart, she could probably do it all on her own. Kagami is happy to do as she is told. They’ll be making lemon poppy seeds muffins.

Baking with Marinette is fun, more fun than she could have imagined. For as far as she can remember, there were always robots taking care of her meals at home, or professional cooks. She is a fast learner, and it is mostly thanks to her excellent teacher who lets her take her time, explains things thoroughly, even though they are probably slower than when Marinette bakes things on her own. The recipe is rather simple, involves a lot of stirring, blending and zesting. When they put the tins in the oven at last, Kagami has to say she is proud of herself. She certainly won’t mention that part of her day to Mother, that is for sure.

“So, what do you usually watch?” Kagami asks as she glances at the oven again.

“I—Actually I don’t know,” Marinette scratches her head. “Haven’t watched anything in what feels like centuries, there’s always that one sitcom but I’ve forgotten half the characters already, so maybe we could find something new? Or maybe you could introduce me to a thing you watch?”

“I am not allowed to watch things Mother has not approved of,” Kagami looks at her feet. “She says that fiction on screen is, for the most part, a complete waste of time, and that documentaries are made for schoolchildren. But I always believed that to be a misinformed opinion so I might as well disregard it completely.”

There is something incredibly freeing about saying it out loud, and a little frightening too. Marinette nods in agreement. They spend the next twenty minutes getting lost on Webflix watching trailer after trailer of shows that seem alright but always too long, the show Marinette had watched, Harlem 88, would be a perfectly fine option, it doesn’t take long to convince her to start it over. But before that… The oven beeps, and judging by the smell of it, Kagami is almost certain the muffins are a success. The recipe must be foolproof. Marinette snaps a picture and sends it to Alya.

“Is it okay if I post it on Amstramgram? I’ll leave out your name if you want.”

Kagami nods in approval, her mouth is too full to form a proper answer. The muffins taste even better than they look, dangerously so, and she has to strategically put the plate out of her reach as they launch the first episode. No wonder Marinette had been interested in the show in the first place, it’s really entertaining, the actors are good and the jokes never fail to land, Marinette laughs and says some lines along the characters. They aren’t sitting too far apart from one another… Perhaps they’re a little too close. Kagami can feel the warmth of her friend’s leg next to hers and it makes her a little nervous. The episode ends all too soon, they only need to exchange a look to know they can at least start another.

The opening credits play out, a silly catchy brass tune, and Kagami finds herself stealing glances at Marinette every now and again. She has the loveliest freckles on the bridge of her nose, a small dimple when she grins, and her lips… No. This isn’t right, she mustn’t be thinking of her friend like that, especially a girl. What is wrong with her? She scoots slightly away from Marinette, not too much so that she won’t notice, but still enough to ensure their legs aren’t touching from time to time, and keeps her eyes on the television screen. So why isn’t her heart slowing down, why isn’t it entirely uncomfortable? That must be her brokenness and her tiredness acting out. Nothing seeing Adrien and getting some more sleep won’t solve. The end credits roll out and she knows she has to go.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to give you a ride home?” Marinette sounds worried. “It’s going to rain real soon…”

“I appreciate your concern,” Kagami shakes her head with a smile as she puts her bag on her shoulder. “I am not made of sugar, I am sure the drizzle won’t—”

“At least take an umbrella, I don’t want you to get sick or anything.”

They walk downstairs with their shoes on, and sure enough there is a kind of umbrella stand near the door she had never paid attention to before. The Dupain-Cheng household seems to have a liking for polka dots, which makes Kagami chuckle. If only Marinette’s parents knew… There’s also a single black umbrella that seems a little out of place in the middle of the others… She shouldn’t take it, its absence would be too conspicuous. Instead, she picks a small pink umbrella with white dots. These aren’t really her favourite colours but then again, the umbrella willprotect her from the rain all the same.

“I don’t know how to thank you for everything you’ve done for me today…” Marinette is looking at her with something in her eyes she can’t quite place. “It means… It means a lot to me and I don’t know what I’d do without you. You’re always so good to me.”

“You do not need to,” Kagami says. Marinette… Scares her. This can only be fear, it has to. “Thank me, that is. Anyone would have done the same.”

“If you say so,” Marinette deflates. “Well thank you anyway!”

“I really have to go now, Mother won’t be happy if I am late.” 

Kagami takes a step back.

She isn’t sure she’d be able to leave if Marinette hugged her.

“Alright,” Marinette says in a low voice. “See you on Wednesday afternoon!”

“I will send you notes for your classes before that,” Kagami promises. “See you on Wednesday!”

Coward.

It’s a long way back to her flat, and it starts pouring a few minutes after she has left the Dupain-Cheng bakery. Her mind is racing all the way through, and her heart beating so fast it almost hurts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're ready for next week, because boy oh boy are you in for a ride!
> 
> In the meantime, take care of yourselves, check on your friends and try to watch a film in a foreign language! I rediscovered Wong Kar-wai's _The Grandmaster_ and it was even better than I remembered.


	8. Understanding

Sometimes, Kagami wonders what a national champion like M. D’Argencourt is doing teaching his classes in a gymnasium instead of an actual salle. The most recent generation of French Olympic has been trained by him, and the one before. Is he so bad at managing his money that he can’t afford anything better, and too proud to accept help from anyone? That would be the likeliest scenario, but again, this is her making guesses, nothing more. The squeaking sound of shoes on the linoleum floor gets grating, she has never quite gotten used to it. It is more of a minor inconvenience than a major distraction. Tonight’s opponent, Olivier Duchêne, is quite noisy, and keen on moving around.

On all accounts, he shouldn’t have to. It’s hard to believe he is two years older than her, he is bigger than everyone here, even the fencing master himself. He’s tall, and a major annoyance with a wide reach and a knack for attacks that take full advantage of his size, particularly fond of trying to overwhelm his adversaries by getting close to them and then crushing them under the sheer power of his attacks. In other words, whoever will be on the other side of the piste in five, maybe ten years, will be faced with a formidable opponent. She can keep up with him just fine, he used to be able to defeat her easily but that was months ago.

“Hey, squirt, you’re taking longer to kick my butt today, what’s up with that?”

He is annoying and observant, too.

“I would rather you stopped using that nickname,” Kagami deadpans. “I have told you so before. And to answer your question, nothing.”

That, of course, is a lie, and he isn’t stupid enough to buy it. He doesn’t press the matter any further, and so they return to their bout. When she says he will become a great opponent, she means the “Olympic fencer” kind of great. Mother has heard his name, which means he is one of the France Fencing Federation’s protégés. Which makes defeating him all the more gratifying, and defeat him she does as has become her habit. It does take her longer than is usually the case, though. What could she possibly tell him to justify that?

“My best friend is currently showing her work to Gabriel Agreste and I worry about her a lot because I know how callous the man can be and because I care about her so much it’s making me confused” would be too direct, even for her. “I do not know if my advice for dealing with Gabriel Agreste will be enough for Marinette to be able to showcase her talents without being intimidated” wouldn’t do either, nor “I shouldn’t be here wasting my time fencing, I should be with her, trying to help her any way I can, surely M. Agreste would be somewhat nicer with me in the room and instead I am stuck here.”

She blames it on kendo practice, at least it is what she tells Olivier.

M. D’Argencourt comes to watch them, they give their best and the man nods in approval. Many of the other fencers stop practicing while their instructor has his back turned. Are they really supposed to be more mature than her? When they get the chance to stop fencing to regain their breath, they are happy to do so. Olivier tries to play the role of the more experienced fencer and shows her some movements she has already learned with Mother. She tells him so right away. His face falls a little and he runs a hand through his hair to try to play it cool. He ought to stop trying to become her mentor or her big brother, she doesn’t need him to be any of these things nor does she want him to.

To her relief, she is paired with someone else for the second half of the “course”, as M. D’Argencourt is so keen on calling it. Céline Mandi is a loudmouth when she is around her friends, it doesn’t change when she puts her fencing mask on. She is one of these hobby fencers with no real ambition on the piste, good enough to impress most people, but not much of a challenge otherwise, which may not be for the best, at least not today. It makes everything feel slower, without the exhilaration that comes with the short bursts of action, since Mandi is all bark and no bite. There isn’t much going on, Kagami doesn’t need to come up with complex strategies against her opponent, considering how predictable the girl is.

Which gives her more time to let her mind wander. If she was able to find Marinette’s blog then so was M. Agreste, it must mean he won’t be assessing Marinette’s creations at all. What if Adrien is here too? He usually has a Chinese class with his tutor around 5 p.m. but it wouldn’t surprise her if his schedule had been rearranged. But Adrien’s presence shouldn’t make her worried, they go to the same school, they are in the same class, it’s not like Marinette would try to “steal” him from her or anything like that, she is over her crush, hasn’t she said so? And besides, M. Agreste would not tolerate that kind of behaviour. There, solved it with rationality! And now she can go on with her life.

As if it were that simple. She can’t put words on what is causing this apprehension, and it’s still there, growing, making her grip on the hilt of her sabre just a little too tight. Once, Mandi almost scores a touch, M. D’Argencourt comes to correct her posture and teach her another technique. Kagami barely pays attention to them, she is already thinking out ahead. First she avoids getting trapped in a long conversation with the fencing instructor, then she hurries to the locker room. The car will be there to pick her up, and after that, dinner with the Agrestes as usual. It should be doable, in fact she should be able to finish preparing the notes for Marinette’s chemistry class on her way home. It’s not particularly difficult —she is already familiar with the curriculum— but quite time-consuming. It’s a good thing she isn’t carsick.

She plays a quick game of “let’s dodge M. D’Argencourt” and manages to stick to the rest of the plan after that. It really isn’t as thorough as one of Marinette’s grand schemes but it works all the same. The car is where it should be, she gets in, takes out a sheet of paper and her phone, and gets to work. Ions and reagents aren’t the most fascinating things, at least to her, but a promise is a promise and the car’s suspensions allow her to write down everything Marinette might need without turning the sheet into an inky mess. The ride is just long enough for her to be done with it. She’ll triple-check the spelling, scan the paper and send it to her friend as soon as she unlocks the door to her flat. She takes off her shoes before coming in.

There is a faint smell of eau de toilette in the air, she doesn’t recognise it… That must be a gift from one of Mother’s new Parisian friends, Mother herself must be preparing herself in the bathroom. She does not get out to greet her, which means her outfit is difficult to put on. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that she has chosen to wear a tomedose. She might require assistance at some point, though she hadn’t needed any help the two previous times, so perhaps she won’t be needed… Kagami does what she had set herself out to do as quickly as she can, muffles the noise of the scanner with her jacket just in case. The computer will be back in Mother’s room someday, and she’ll have to come up with another solution to send Marinette the notes she needs.

If only she had a laptop of her own… Father could send her one, it’s not like he’s poor, his company is always giving him free electronics and such. Reaching out just to get _stuff_ from him feels wrong. Then again it’s not her fault he never replies to her messages, which has discouraged her from writing him every other day. That’s it, she’ll ask him, she has better chances with him. She writes a message, re-reads herself just in case, he might not answer positively if her phrasing is odd. She sends it. It’s no use waiting for his answer, if it ever comes, it is past midnight in Japan. He might just be sleeping, for once.

Deciding what clothes to wear for the evening should be easy since Mother has picked the theme. She hadn’t worn a houmongi in a long time. The one downside is, she isn’t sure she can put it on by herself, she has never been taught that and she has better things to do than checking tutorial videos on the internet. She hates it when Mother “helps” her, it’s always an excuse for unpleasant and remarks about her posture and how she is becoming too muscular to be “ladylike”, whatever that could mean. She has learned not to let these get to her, it works more often than not, but the anticipation always makes her needlessly tense. She checks her phone — no new messages, which is normal, and a little disappointing too— and sits at her desk. Fortunately, she manages to dash through most of her own homework before she hears the door to the bathroom open with a slight creak.

It looks like they will both be wearing purple tonight. Not her favourite colour, but it’s _fine_. Kagami prepares her clothes and hurries to the shower. When she returns to her room, Mother is sitting on her bed with an inquisitive expression. Why does everything have to be a test with her? Perhaps she’ll pass it this time. She has already taken care of the first steps while in the bathroom, now she only needs to put on the Nagajuban, that goes under the kimono proper, and then the kimono itself. If she recalls properly, she has to leave some space between the collar and her neck… About the size of her fist, right? And then she ties the white garment to her body with that kind of belt…

“Are you certain you have not forgotten something?” Mother asks.

Oh, right. First the smaller sash, koshi-himo, just below her chest, and then the broader one, date-jime. She wouldn’t have remembered that on her own, and _then_ the kimono. She makes sure the seams align properly. Then there is that complicated thing about wrapping the fabric in the correct direction, right over left, wasn’t it? No, she is mistaken, it is the other way around. And then the second koshi-himo to hold everything together. She readjusts the collar, after that there’s something about yet another koshi-himo and a date-jime but she doesn’t recall the details at all. She has failed the test for today. Mother takes over, her gestures a little too brisk, almost snappy, but efficient all the same. She finishes by tying the obi belt with a little more strength than would be strictly necessary, a little too tight too. They are done now. And then Mother’s phone rings.

“Gabriel? Yes. Of course. Yes, yes, it is perfect… We will see you there!”

She can’t count on Mother to tell her what that call was about, but she can always guess. Does that mean that M. Agreste will be late? She’ll probably get the answer to that question soon enough, at least she hopes so. There isn’t a lot she can do now that she is fully dressed. Waiting with Mother sitting on her desk chair is awkward, that silence is almost deafening. They can’t have real conversations, not really. What could they talk about without ending up hurting each other? Is it like that for all children and their parents? Probably not normal families, she thinks bitterly. After fifteen excruciating minutes, Mother gets up and out of the room. They must be on their way

* * *

“You have arrived at the Palais Royal,” the synthetic voice says.

A part of Kagami wants to step on these striped columns. It would be unbecoming of her, especially considering her outfit and shoes. She has come here with Marinette, once, and it’s exactly what her friend had done. There is an atmosphere of grandeur to the place, 17th century limestone buildings and colonnades tend to have that effect on her. The Louvre is just on the other side, too. The restaurant will be just as prestigious, otherwise M. Agreste wouldn’t have invited them there. She catches a glimpse of a mop of blond hair by a window, and of course, it’s Adrien. He has seen her too, he rushes to meet her. After that, it’s the usual things, the kiss —too long— the rose and the chair.

This time, the menu is clear enough for her to know what to order. Adrien is glad to be here, he always is in her company, as far as she is aware, but she doesn’t think she has ever seen M. Agreste in a better mood than tonight. His tone is almost warm, his smile reaches his eyes, he even laughs in a way that doesn’t sound like he is forcing himself or mocking someone. Ponting all of this out would be impolite of her, she is not his equal, she isn’t allowed to talk to him that way. Mother, on the other hand, can ask all she wants, and ask she does. M. Agreste’s grin widens even more, if that is possible. It’s almost unsettling, and a little sinister.

“It is my new apprentice,” he answers. “She is very promising, isn’t she, Adrien? Who knew a baker’s daughter had it in her!”

“So it is,” Mother frowns. “Do you mean the Dupain-Cheng girl?”

“Yes, Marinette,” Adrien nods brightly.

“Of course, she will need a lot of training, more discipline,” M. Agreste states. He takes a long sip of wine. “She has much to learn. Nevertheless, I must say she is surprisingly talented for her age, quite miraculous.”

“Do you truly believe so?” Mother’s frown deepens.

“Why, I might have found a worthy successor!” M. Agreste chuckles. “In some forty years when I am too old to hold a pen.”

“She is an amazing girl,” Adrien says. “She is kind, smart, beautiful, and a great class representative!”

Kagami isn’t sure she likes what she hears. Not that she disagrees with the message, quite the opposite in fact, but the way Adrien says it makes her oddly nervous. Could this be a sign of their relationship coming to an end soon? He wouldn’t leave her for Marinette, would he? She has done everything the way she was supposed to and it has worked, her lack of enjoyment is only a detail, his kiss from earlier felt just as sincere as his previous kisses, and he admires all of his other friends the same way he does Marinette. Not, it isn’t nervousness she is feeling, rather, it is something more akin to disquiet, and it is unfounded, it has to be. Thinking that is not enough to make that tension disappear.

“What do you think of her, Kagami?” M. Agreste asks her. “She must be a close friend of yours since she has made you that suit, yes?”

Why does this sound like a trick question?

“She is a friend,” Kagami confirms, “and a talented budding designer.” Only these words don’t make Marinette justice, she means so much more than that. Her answer is safe and clean and in-character. “I do think she will benefit greatly from your mentorship, M. Agreste,” she adds, and Mother seems happy with her.

“I had to keep her a little longer to see what she was capable of,” M. Agreste says. “I must say I do not regret it!” Though it is true I might need Nathalie to reschedule things a little.

The waiters arrive with the second course of their meal and bring an end to this conversation. The restaurant has earned its fame. The salad was great, her courgette gratin is even better, it melts in her mouth. They discuss more mundane things after that, the Jazz club in Saint-Germain-en-Laye again, Father’s company, Adrien’s newfound hobby in lacrosse. Kagami is almost happy to keep in the background and to speak only when she is invited to. It’s always the same, the food and surroundings may change every time but they always talk about the same things, they all have their pre-established roles, things they are meant to do and say. She knows how to play her part.

“… and send chef Tatou my compliments! Would you like some more wine?”

“He was a great opponent. We faced each other in Nara and then in Kyoto…”

“Mme Mendeleiev says I have all it takes to become a physician, so I thought this summer I could…”

“… relocating the factory back in France? That would be a complete waste of the company’s resources. Sometimes my collaborators…”

“As Mother said, kyudo is more than simple archery…”

“My husband’s field is robotics but he has connections, I am sure one of his friends would be honoured to have you become an intern once you are of age.”

“Wow… I knew Tokyo was big, but I had no idea!”

How she wishes she could excuse herself, get up and simply walk away, get home and do anything other than sitting at that table and listening to them… But that wouldn’t be very polite of her, or fair, tonight isn’t any more boring than any other night out with the Agrestes. She has tolerated it all so far, so why change now? Luckily, no one is there to notice the way her expression sours, at least she doesn’t think so, Adrien is too engrossed with Mother’s stories of Japan to pay attention to anything else, his father is watching them with an amused look on his face. Ha. Funny how Mother is nicer to the boy her daughter is dating than to her daughter herself.

By the end of the meal, M. Agreste is slightly tipsy, Mother isn’t faring any better, quite the contrary, and the bill is obscene. It is getting late. They leave the restaurant and walk — or stagger— to their respective cars. Mlle Sancœur makes a rare appearance and opens the door for the two men. Kagami bids the Agrestes goodbye on behalf of Mother, and thanks them for the evening with as much conviction as she can put in that act. Adrien looks at her with playfulness in his eyes, gives her a kiss she doesn’t feel like returning. She does anyway. The drive home is uneventful, fortunately. Mother shoos her away when she tries to help her take off her tomedose. Good to know that even when she is inebriated, Mother is just as pleasant as ever.

“Do not be long in the bathroom.”

As if she needed to be told so. Kagami removes her makeup, brushes her teeth. She takes a quick shower, much too quick to be enjoyable; pleasure has no place here, not tonight at least. When she wishes Mother a good night, she gets no response, not even a nod. She has the feeling she might get that silent treatment tomorrow as well. _Fine_. She closes the door to her room behind her, puts the houmongi back in her wardrobe and sits at her desk. She has quite a few unread messages from Marinette. She reads them all, starting with the older ones.

**7:58 PM**

_im finally out! it was kinda long and i have so many things to share_

**8:00 PM**

_i know you wont answer right away but i just gotta tell you before i tell alya_

**8:01 PM**

_thank you so much for the tips on how to talk to him, that really helped, i thought i was gonna make a mess of everything but no, and its all thanks to you_

**8:02 PM**

_adrien was here too, the first task m. agreste gave me was to create a draft for a hat adrien could wear and i think it went really well? i think adrien liked my sketches too_

**8:03 PM**

_i feel like im repeating myself a lot and these messages are all over the place…_

**8:04 PM**

_i think im going to try to go to bed early tonight but im still so excited_

_talk to you later if you can! or tomorrow_

It would be too late to text her back. Marinette needs all the sleep she can get after all. It can wait, they will be seeing each other tomorrow anyway. This is _fine_ , everything is _fine_. She puts the phone on the night table, perhaps a little forcefully, lies down on her bed and stares at the ceiling. She needs to calm down, has to calm down, this was part of the internship, not something Marinette decided to make on her own and even if she had, it would be her choice and no one should have a say in that. Hasn’t Marinette also thanked her, and said there was more she wanted to tell her? It’s only one message in the middle of many others, it shouldn’t make her stomach sink like that, it shouldn’t make her angry.

Only, this isn’t anger directed at someone else, unlike that time with the picture of Adrien and that other girl, no, this is something different, but just as twisted. It’s jealousy, because Adrien got to watch Marinette create something and not her, because he was the one sitting next to M. Agreste and not her, because he was the one Marinette created something for. It’s the fear that Marinette will only follow what M. Agreste wants her to do, that the suit she has made won’t feel special to her anymore, that Adrien will catch Marinette’s eye again and that they’ll drift apart again, and after that… Kagami doesn’t even want to think about what would happen then, it fills her with more anxiety than she knows she can deal with.

* * *

Falling asleep is difficult, especially since the usual breathing exercises won’t work. When her eyes close at last, she is plagued with odd dreams she doesn’t remember when she wakes up. The bitter taste of restlessness remains. Mother doesn’t talk to her over breakfast, doesn’t supervise the morning’s workout session like she should, in fact she doesn’t acknowledge her presence at all. Kagami has seen worse. She exercises all the same, does her homework, finishes writing notes on a chapter of Marinette’s maths textbook she is sure her friend hasn’t studied yet. An akuma has appeared at the Gare du Nord earlier in the morning, according to her app; it has been dealt with rapidly, so nothing should be happening today. Just a regular day.

Mother stays silent as they have lunch. She has done this a few time, Kagami muses as she pulls ahead of her homework schedule for the rest of the week. It can last a few hours, or entire days, depending on… She doesn’t actually know. Chances are, she’ll give her the silent treatment for dinner.

“Fencing practice begins soon, you ought to go.”

Or perhaps not.“Yes, Mother,” Kagami says. A part of her is relieved.

She makes sure not to forget the polka-dotted umbrella on her way out. She knows Marinette’s route well enough, it and since she will reach the collège a good ten minutes before she is meant to, she could surprise her friend and save them both some time. As soon as the car is out of her sight, she starts walking away from Françoise Dupont’s doors. She seldom gets the occasion to enjoy Paris when she is jogging, or in a vehicle with tinted windows. Today’s weather isn’t the best, too many clouds, though they don’t look threatening, and still, it is good to be outside. She spots Marinette at the same time Marinette sees her.

“Hi! Didn’t expect to find you here!” Marinette’s grin is contagious. “Hop in!” She pats the bike’s rear rack, and her sleeve slips to reveal a jade-coloured bracelet.

“My car arrived a little early,” Kagami explains as she links her arms around the other girl’s middle. “Your home, or somewhere else?”

“Yeah,” Marinette nods. “Err, I mean, yeah, my home, I’ve got so many things I wanna share with you! How are you?”

“Mother is being difficult and I have had better nights,” Kagami answers frankly. “But otherwise I am okay. You?”

“Good!” Marinette says. “Better than ever! By the way, I didn’t thank you for the notes you sent me yesterday, so, thanks for all of that, I don’t know what I’d do without them!”

They get to the Dupain-Cheng bakery in no time, there is a small queue in front of the entrance (“mum and dad are inaugurating a new biscuit recipe,” Marinette tells her) so waving at Tom and Sabine isn’t exactly possible. Kagami returns the umbrella to its original place before she follows her friend up the stairs. Marinette is brimming with excitement as she leads the way to her room. It is relatively tidy this time, nothing thrown on the parquet floor or on the chaise longue, for the most part her desk isn’t too cluttered either, outside of a lump of dark fabric, maybe velvet, right in the middle. Kagami takes the chaise longue, Marinette sits on her chair and rolls to get closer to her.

“I have to ask, what is the black…” Kagami isn’t sure there is a proper word to describe it. “The black thing on your desk?”

“You should be a detective,” Marinette says, and Kagami feels her face heating up. “I was saving this for later but I guess not! Have you checked the Ladyblog today?”

“Not yet,” Kagami shakes her head.

“Well, they’re going crazy about Shellbug,” Marinette grimaces. “I know, not the best name… But that’s not the point! The point is…” She gets up and removes the fabric, revealing a glowing green sphere, and next to it the Tortoise kwami and another one… The dog, maybe? It has tiny ears, it’s kind of cute. Inside the sphere…

“Is that…” Kagami starts.

“I went butterfly hunting!” Marinette confirms. “Usually they just fly away and disappear, but I used Wayzz’s power to keep this one trapped. Since it’s purified it shouldn’t be dangerous. And now Barkk is trying to memorise the magic signature attached to it so that I can track back the place it came from.”

“Magic signature?” Kagami raises her eyebrow.

“All kwamis use different sorts of magic,” Marinette recites. “And they all leave their own specific traces. Take, say the Eiffel Tower. Full of residual magic from Tikki because of all the times I had to restore it to its former state. Or the Arc de Triomphe. Or… But you get the idea.”

“I had not thought about this at all,” Kagami whispers to herself. She hasn’t given much thought about the kwamis in general, she must admit. “Does that mean Hawk Moth track you like that too?”

“No, fortunately, I don’t think so,” Marinette says. “Detecting them is one of Barkk’s specialties. The more traces of the Butterfly kwami there are, the freshest they are, the likeliest it is that I’m getting closer to Hawk Moth’s lair… Or to the places he attacked the most.”

“You can cross your school off your list, then” Kagami suggests.

“Already done!” Marinette takes out a sheet of paper from one of her drawers. A map of Paris. “I’ve created a battle plan of some sorts. From tonight onwards, I’ll be patrolling specific sectors of the city, and by next week, I should be able to narrow down a perimeter and further my investigation. I thought I could use public transportation to speed things up a little, too!”

She is brilliant, there is no other word. And… Blushing, looking at her with a timid smile?

“Did I just say that out loud?” Kagami says, mortified.

“D-did you mean it?” Marinette stutters.

“Yes,” Kagami tries to say with a normal tone. It doesn’t really work.

They both look away.

“So, that wasn’t what I was planning on telling you yesterday evening,” Marinette laughs awkwardly. “So, my apprenticeship with M. Agreste!”

Right. They can’t not talk about it.

“He told me that you were…” Kagami tries to remember the exact words. “Promising, and a worthy successor.”

“Oh!” Marinette’s eyes widen. “He didn’t exactly put it that way with me. I mostly thought it was alright because he didn’t scowl at me and he didn’t comment on my work negatively, he gave me some advice and instructions from time to time and I followed them, that’s all. He is good, really good, I already knew that but having him supervise me was a totally different thing, and I think he could really help me improve everything I do!

“He wasn’t kind or warm or anything but compared with all I’ve heard and seen of him, that was manageable… Alya was surprised too! She and Nino have that whole theory according to which he is a kind of vampire who sleeps in a coffin and all, and they’re only half-joking. Anyway, he didn’t yell at me, he even gave me a pass to most of the museums in the city since he cannot legally pay me and he might use my work. So, it went surprisingly well!”

“He was in an excellent mood for dinner,” Kagami says. “I think you made quite the impression on him! He is not a very demonstrative person when it comes to positive emotions, most of the time, I think.”

“Adrien seemed impressed,” Marinette says. “He looked over my shoulder, quite often!”

She doesn’t sound all too enthused about that. Somehow, hearing that makes Kagami a little relieved. “Watching you work is _something_ ,” she says.

“I mean, it’s very flattering, but I also need some space to work without feeling that there’s someone constantly staring at what I’m doing? I was too nervous to ask him to… Well it was harmless and he didn’t mean to make it unnerving so it doesn’t matter.”

That does sound like him, he means well but isn’t all that good at reading cues. “It will be different next time, I am sure,” Kagami says.

“Working on your suit with you in the room seemed…” Marinette fiddles with her hands. “I don’t know, right? You were next to me, but not constantly looking at me, you let me do my thing and still I wasn’t alone. I liked having you here, it felt… I’d like to do it again.”

Kagami’s heart skips a beat.

“I would like that too,” she says, her voice so faint she can barely hear it.

And as the words leave her lips, she understands. She is not broken, she never was.

She is in love with another girl.

Fear grips at her throat and digs at her stomach just as the thought forms in her mind. She can’t, not when she is dating Adrien, not when he is doing everything he can to make her happy, not when he seems so happy to be with her. She would break his heart, Mother would be furious, too, and loving Marinette… It scares her. It’s not like she could end the relationship she is in anyway, she is too much of a coward for that.

Marinette gets up and holds out her hand. Their gazes meet, and what Kagami sees in the other girl’s eyes takes her breath away.

“I’ll wait for you for as long as you need, and I’ll be with you all the way,” Marinette says with a small, tranquil smile. “C’mon, I wanna show you that idea for a dress that popped up in my head after you left on Saturday! I already made a few patterns!”

Perhaps… Perhaps she can learn how to be brave.

She takes Marinette’s hand, and lets her help her up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can help with bail and mutual aid funds, please do. I don't know if ao3 allows posting links to these things, they'll be on my Tumblr. They're fairly easy to find. It's not just in Minnesota.
> 
> If you are not Black and want to educate yourself, read Malcolm X's “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech, read Angela Davis' _Abolition Democracy: Beyond Prisons, Torture, and Empire_ , read Frantz Fanon's _The Wretched of the Earth_. 
> 
> If you want to go out and protest (which you should do, in my humble opinion), wear baggy clothes, bring water and Maalox, a first aid kit. Have at least one demonstration buddy, film what is happening but if you post it online, blur faces. Have your contact info ready, an ID card, just in case. Bring a face mask, Covid-19 is still around, safety goggles, they'll help with the gas and they may save your eyes. If you were gassed, do not take a hot shower. Phone goes on airplane mode if you can help it. 
> 
> The police were never there to help you but these demonstrations only show how unhinged they are. The only good cops are those who resign instead of upholding a system that is a racist, homophobic, transphobic, misogynistic and classist killing machine in all but name.
> 
> Be safe out there. Justice for George Floyd, David McAtee, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. Justice pour Adama, Zineb, Zyed, Bouna, Théo…
> 
> Black lives matter.


	9. Conversations

Many a time during her childhood, Kagami had heard people complaining about the rudeness of Parisian Cafés waiters. When she had first set foot in one, she had been shocked to find that these complaints were very much grounded, and often very light compared with the real things. Wasn’t a waiter’s job to write down and bring their clients’ orders, and to make them feel welcome? So why were they only good at the former? Sure, it had to be hard work, there was no doubting it, she wouldn’t have been able to do any better had she been in their shoes, but that didn’t make these waiters any less likeable.

“So what will it be?”

Now, Kagami has grown insensitive to the disagreeable tone and annoyed sighs.

“Passionfruit juice for me,” Adrien smiles.

“The usual, then” the waiter comments.

“I will have sparkling water, please,” Kagami looks up from the menu.

“It’ll be a lemonade for me,” Alya says.

“And for me a peppermint soda,” Nino smiles.

“Alright,” the waiter grumbles, and he scratches his bald head. “You’ll go get them at the bar, there are too many clients and not enough of us so…”

They can certainly hear that, there are at least a dozen conversations going on behind them, and the occasional noise of glasses clinking. Sometimes, Kagami wonders why they have chosen to go to Le Café Suédois at 5 p.m. when it is the most crowded place on Earth. The café itself is nice, very affordable, they’ve come here often has an “old school” mood, with its red leather wall seats and dark wooden stools. Only, it seems that half of Paris’ university students have had the same idea. She can’t exactly blame them, but she isn’t too happy with the noise and the fact that the waiters are apparently too busy for the four of them. Some double date this is turning out to be… On the bright side of things, no one has noticed Adrien just yet.

“Of course, dude,” Nino nods. “We’ll take care of it, Adrien and me!”

“And they say chivalry’s dead,” Alya laughs.

This was all her idea, to have Adrien skip fencing practice this Monday so that he could go out with them. With the brevet des collèges soon approaching, Kagami must say she is almost shocked by his nonchalance. Well, not really, he his top of his class, the marks he has received during his school year count for more than half the final mark, and besides, no one in Françoise Dupont takes that exam too seriously, according to Alya, and both boys agree with her on that. They continue their chat about a rhythm game they both play, and so does Alya, though she is only a beginner. It doesn’t really feel like a double date, not really, Kagami muses. From someone else’s perspective, they’d look like they’re just friends hanging out and that’s about it.

Which defeats the idea of a date completely but that’s apparently besides the point, and she is glad she isn’t alone with Adrien. At least, three out of the four of them are having a great time, and she’ll be too once they change the topic of the discussion to something she could be truly interested in. This is fine, she is used to being bored and staying in her room for most of the day, so anything other than that is at least mildly entertaining. She half-listens to them, glances at the other tables every so often. Some people are playing card games, some are drinking beer, some are chatting… Calling the atmosphere livelier than all the restaurants she has been to with Mother and M. Agreste would be the understatement of the century. She can’t say she sees herself going there on her own, and still, she understands why other people would. It’s a nice change of pace.

What isn’t a nice change of pace is Adrien, or rather the small kisses he gives her every now and again, and she would call it playful if she didn’t detest it. He is holding back when either of their parents is here, or when they are in a place with an etiquette, she is sure of that now. His mischievousness is something she hadn’t seen in him at all, sure, they have skipped fencing practice to go to the Couffaine houseboat once, but that glint in his eyes simply wasn’t there back then. The kisses have become a new habit of his when they are alone, or with friends, and she can’t say she is a fan. Not that she refuses them, but she would rather do without. It cannot be helped, she supposes.

It goes on for a little while, that turns into a long while. Nino is the one to remember what they have come here for in the first place. He gets up, Adrien rummages through his bag until he finds his wallet and follows him. The bar isn’t all that far away, there is a small queue that seems to be moving rather quickly. They shouldn’t be long, Nino promises. Adrien says he’s inviting them all, and that he’s happy to do so. They can’t really argue against that, especially since he does look happy. Which leaves Kagami alone with Alya. It has happened maybe three times since she’s set foot in Paris, now that she thinks of it. They don’t know each other all that well, Kagami would call the other girl an acquaintance.

The first time had been awkward, at the Couffaine houseboat, back then she was still Marinette’s rival, at least in Alya’s mind. Then there was that moment, the day when they played Really Dance 4 at Marinette’s, Marinette herself had left the living room while Nino… She can’t recall where he was. It had been fun, they had made small talk, she had complimented Alya on her dancing skills, Alya had given her a few tips. The third time, they must have been walking behind the boys to get ice cream from André, it’s a blurry memory so nothing significant must have happened. Only one thing. Alya had given her an odd look at some point. Kagami can’t say she has thought about it too much

“They are hard to stop when they are passionate about something, aren’t they?” she comments.

“I think Nino might just ask his mum to adopt Adrien,” Alya chuckles.

Kagami can’t say she disagrees with that. Though polite as he can be in public, she wouldn’t trust M. Agreste with a pet, let alone raising a human being. “He should,” she says in earnest.

Alya looks like she is searching for her words, or perhaps just for something to say so that they won’t be there awkwardly sitting in silence. Her poker face is pretty good, Kagami simply can’t tell what she could be thinking. The perfect topic comes to her mind naturally.

“Say, about Shellbug…”

“Nah, no new video footage,” Alya groans, but she seems almost relieved to be talking about that. “I did write I’d try to get some more, didn’t I? Well, it was a flashy battle, and it looked terrible in motion, everything is just too bright, we get some awful interlacing when I try to slow it down so the still images aren’t any better. And unlike the folks at the Lady Bugle, I promised I wouldn’t post anything doctored on the serious part of the blog, so we’ll just have to wait next time.”

“I didn’t know you took this so seriously,” Kagami says.

“I didn’t, at first, it was just a fun after school hobby!” Alya scratches her neck. “I had the stupidest theories, I wasn’t great at investigating either, I posted everything I thought was funny or interesting, I used to believe the stupidest lies… And then I realised the blog had become a pretty big deal, and you know, with great ability comes great accountability, so I asked people for help.”

“You don’t regret it? Doing this on your own.”

“If anything, my first posts make me cringe a little,” Alya winces. “I’m super glad there are other nerds that help me put out the best content online.”

“Unlike the Lady Bugle?” Kagami smirks.

“You’re way too polite, they’re absolute sh— hey, here are our drinks! And the boys!”

“What were we interrupting?” Adrien asks. He sits back next to Kagami and pours her some sparkling water.

“We were bitching about the Lady Bugle,” Alya answers.

As it turns out, complaining truly is the French’s national sports. Nino has lots of thoughts about the fabricated recordings and the special effects used in them, while Adrien tries to find excuses for the people who have posted these videos in the first place but he isn’t putting a lot of effort in playing the devil’s advocate. Alya isn’t nearly as kind as he is, and in Kagami’s mind, she has every right to be. Their glasses empty themselves progressively as they chat some more. Nino orders another peppermint soda — “I’ll pay this time, dude”— which he ends up sharing with Alya.

“They shouldn’t label themselves as an information website, clear and simple,” Adrien says.

“But then they wouldn’t get as many views if they said they were interested in creating fiction based on Ladybug and Chat Noir and all the others,” Nino points out.

“I do not think Ladybug and Chat Noir are trademarks, they could make their own fan-films if they wished to,” Kagami adds.

“And the worst thing is, they’ve started selling merch!” Alya throws her hands in the air. “Can you believe it? Hello, I’m wearing a mediocre t-shirt with the name of a blog that spreads complete lies and bogus theories online and I put 25€ in it even though the people who made it were paid not even a tenth of that, but yeah, sure, I share Ladybug’s values! Come on!”

“Really? That’s gross,” Nino wrinkles his nose.

“If you aren’t drinking anything, you should leave,” a waiter, the bald one again, says as he passes by their table.

“We’re leaving, we’re leaving,” Adrien tells him. He turns to Kagami and adds, “we don’t want to be late for our chauffeurs!”

“We’ll be going with you,” Nino offers.

He probably wants to continue chatting with his best friend. Kagami can’t say she minds, quite the contrary. Outside of school, they probably don’t see each other very often. There is no hurry to get back to Françoise Dupont, and yet Nino and Adrien manage to be faster than Alya. Kagami stays a little behind as well, so that the girl won’t feel abandoned. The two boys get too absorbed in their discussion to notice, or perhaps they simply don’t care, either way they are way ahead of the two girls, and soon, no longer within their earshot. Alya’s poker face returns, with a hint of nervousness in her steps. Kagami frowns. She isn’t being intimidating again, is she? It can’t be it, they’ve talked to each other normally just half an hour ago.

For a little while, they walk in silence, the two of them, until Alya finds the courage to say out loud what she must have been rehearsing in her head during the entirety of the “double date”, perhaps even before.

“You should break up with him.”

There is no way she has just said that.

“I mean it.”

“Look, Alya,” Kagami replies with more annoyance in her voice than she had meant to, “if this is about getting him and Marinette together, it is not going to work, she is over him, so leave it be, will you?”

“I know she is, she’s my best friend,” Alya shoots back. “Hell, I even tried to set her up with Juleka’s brother. I’m not saying it for her sake, I’m saying it for yours!”

“I am not sure I understand,” Kagami says.

“He doesn’t make you happy, not really, you’re good as acting like he is, he buys it, but you slip up sometimes. You’re always looking somewhere else when you can, you seemed relieved when Nino said we’d come with…” Alya’s tone isn’t hostile, she doesn’t sound like she is blaming her at all. And Kagami knows she can’t deny any of the other girl’s observations.

“There’s no point in dating him if it makes you miserable,” Alya continues.

“But it doesn’t!” Kagami protests. She only dislikes the kissing, and having to hold his hand, not the rest, he’s been nothing but kind to her, well-intentioned, and the kissing isn’t even awful, just not great.

“You may be able to fool him, and almost everyone around you, but I think you’ve started to stop fooling yourself, and obviously, I see right through you,” Alya says. “Marinette told me that you never seemed very happy to go on dates with him and that you rarely talk about these with her.”

“Because she had a crush on him and I did not want to bring that up and make things uncomfortable for her!” Seriously, how had can this be to understand?

“And you think I don’t know that?” Alya rolls her eyes. “She’s my best friend, she shares everything with me!”

Kagami has to keep herself from coming up with a witty comeback.

“You still told her the truth when she asked you how things were going between you and Adrien,” Alya smiles sadly. “I don’t know you all that well but I know you shouldn’t stay in a relationship if it doesn’t make you satisfied. It’s been what, two, three months? You deserve better than to being trapped like that.”

“I do not hate him!” Kagami cuts in.

“I never meant that!” Alya shakes her head. “You like him, I’m sure you do, the way friends like each other, but you don’t love him, you haven’t fallen in love with him. I know love when I see it and you’re not a bad actor, but I can tell you are faking it and not enjoying a second of it. You just need to tell that to Adrien, I’m sure he’ll understand.”

Kagami has no clue what to answer to that. Alya puts it like it’s that simple, like she “just” needs to do so and so and then everything will get easier. That girl really has no idea how difficult it all is, has she? She probably means to give her good advice, to motivate her, she certainly thinks she is being helpful by telling her that. But Kagami can’t flip a magical switch hidden somewhere deep within her, say a few words and make it suddenly better for herself. She can’t just tell Adrien that, there is too much for her to lose. Her first instinct is to threaten Alya to make sure she’ll stay silent about this. And then, she remembers she is talking to Marinette’s best friend.

“You have not told anybody else about that theory of yours, have you?” she asks.

“Your secret is safe with me, I promise,” Alya answers. “I don’t wanna… Out you, or anything like that, I’m not that kind of person.”

It’s rich, coming from someone who spends most of her free time trying to figure out Ladybug’s civilian identity. Kagami decides to believe her anyway, it’s not like she has the choice.

“I… Have never broken up with anyone before,” she says after some time.

“You think I’m more experienced than you?” Alya laughs. “Nah, just got an older sister. From what she told me, I guess you just gotta talk about it with him.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Kagami wants to say. Instead, she just nods without much conviction.

Soon, she can see the shape of Françoise Dupont standing in the distance, a little bigger than the other buildings surrounding it. The front door is not open, M. D’Argencourt’s course should be over a little before the Agreste car and her own arrive, in a handful of minutes, they can hear the fencing master’s voice, complimenting . He can be quite loud when he wishes to be. Nino says goodbye before he goes back on his tracks — would that mean that he has walked all the way to the college even though his house is in the opposite direction? That is kind of him — and Alya gives her an insistent look before she follows her boyfriend.

Which leaves Kagami alone with Adrien. It was already a little awkward for her last Friday night, though she had been lucky to have M. Agreste and Mother by her side to do most of the talking; it is much worse than that today, especially after this… Interesting talk. Dealing with uneasiness is not her speciality, especially when the feeling is associated with someone else. It mustn’t show, he mustn’t be able to tell because if it does, he’ll ask and she can only lie to him so many times before she starts feeling bad about it. She has kept her composure through worse than that. For a little while, they don’t talk, Adrien is on his phone, probably texting friends, and so she does the same.

“Do you know where we will be having dinner tomorrow?” she finally breaks the silence.

“No, not yet, I like to be surprised, but I could always ask Nathalie!” Adrien smiles softly. “I’ve tried to convince Father that she could come and dine with us, since her health has improved, but I haven’t managed so far.”

“You see her as part of your family?” Kagami raises an eyebrow. He doesn’t talk about that often, family.

“I think so!” Adrien nods. “We’ve been living in the same house for nine years, she got along with mum really well and I think she has become a good friend of Father’s, so yes, in a sense, she is family.”

“My father always tries to have things handled by robots,” Kagami says. “So we never really needed assistants or cleaners or cooks, not that we could not afford them.”

“That sounds really cool!” Adrien grins.

“They are quite efficient,” Kagami confirms. “But he is busy working all day, so even in Japan I would seldom see him.”

“I can relate to that,” Adrien says.

This is the kind of moment she wants to share with him more often. He is about to take her hand in his and ruin the moment when Françoise Dupont’s doors open. She can see a grey car getting closer, and a red one following it. Now is time for them to part ways, and as much as she hates to admit it, Alya is right, she is relieved she has avoided having to touch him. Not entirely, he still kisses her — on the cheek, fortunately— before they part ways. That much she can tolerate. The drive home is uneventful, Mother isn’t here to greet her when she opens the door. She has just sent her a message, she notices.

6:42PM  
Mother: I have been invited to tea by the Poulaincks, I should be back for dinner, make sure it is ready when I arrive.

Good for her. Mother’s new friends keep her busy, and in a rather agreeable mood, if only for a few hours. Kagami checks the planning for the week’s meals, washes her hands, puts the ingredients for the cabbage salad and roast beef in the right cookers, washes her hands again to get rid of the queasy feeling that comes with touching meat and goes to her room. She turns on her brand new laptop, connects it to the scanner and gets to work. Tonight, she sends Marinette her notes for classic French theatre, Corneille and Racine, and then she should be done with all of her friend’s schoolwork for next week, which will also be the end of the school year.

Being efficient is easy when there is nothing to distract you. She is glad her computer only arrived on Saturday evening, she wouldn’t have gotten so many things done otherwise. Sure, she cannot install any new apps on it, it is programmed to automatically turn off at 10 p.m. and though she hasn’t tried yet, she is certain there are many websites she simply can’t access. Nevertheless, it’s a step up from tiring her eyes on a rather small screen. She might be able to find a way to by-pass these interdiction someday, when she becomes more tech-savvy.

She is proud to say she manages to stick to her plan all the way through, only then does she allow herself to get lost online. Well, not really, she just uses the password to Marinette’s Webflix account and aimlessly browses through the catalogue. She has finished Harlem 88, and now all she can do is wait for the next season to air to know if her favourite postal workers will be relocated or not. If Mother comes home earlier than planned, she’d better not get caught watching something stupid. A documentary series about marine wildlife narrated by one Sir David… She can’t pronounce his last name. That would be perfect, she could even turn it into an excuse, a preparatory work for a future date with Adrien. Plus, the narrator is called Sir David, so Mother couldn’t call it lowly entertainment.

With that last thought, she launches episode one. By the first five minutes, she is intrigued, in a good way. The old man’s voice is oddly soothing. She really shouldn’t be caring about sea otters, kelp forests and urchins but it’s really well shot and the music isn’t too obnoxious. By the tenth minute, she is completely engrossed. Before she knows it, she has watched the entire episode. It takes a lot of self control not to click on the “next episode” icon, she takes a shower, puts on her nightgown and goes back to her room. At precisely half past eight, the door unlocks. Mother seems almost happy.

They don’t talk much over dinner, only to discuss M. Agreste’s choice of restaurant for tomorrow. They’ll be having Lebanese cuisine, if the name is anything to go by. They don’t comment on their own food, it is, as always perfectly decent; it’s not like there is a cook to compliment. Kagami makes up a credible story about M. D’Argencourt’s fencing course, Mother doesn’t tell her much about her afternoon with the Poulaincks and their friends. She’s so secretive about her life outside of fencing… Kagami has stopped wondering why. They go back to their respective rooms as soon as the meal is over.

Kagami’s computer turns off on its own in the middle of the third episode of the documentary. She does not groan in annoyance, it is beneath her, but doing so is very tempting. Is it already time? She checks her phone just to be sure. No new messages, not just yet, and it is indeed 10 p.m. which is a shame, because she isn’t sleepy at all. She has her techniques to help that happen. She sits on the floor and starts meditating, not very successfully, she has to admit, memories of last Wednesday come rushing back, and Alya’s words too. She tries to meditate harder. And her phone vibrates.

**10:21PM**

**Marinette:** _can i drop by in about a good half hour or so?_

**10:24PM**

**Kagami:** _My mother seems to be asleep, I will leave the French window open for you_

**10:25PM**

**Marinette:** _see you soon, then!_

“Soon” feels like a long time. Kagami tries to look for ways to unblock her computer, fruitlessly, makes her bed again, peers under it to make sure there aren’t any socks gathering dust — as if— and finally goes to the living room after the twenty-fifth minute. She settles down on the sofa and stares out the window. Some lights are still on, this could be risky, Marinette could be seen. Then again, this is Ladybug she is talking about, she isn’t an idiot, she knows how not to compromise her secret identity. Kagami waits, and then it’s 11 p.m. and still no news from her friend… Until her phone vibrates again.

**11:01PM**

**Marinette:** _im in your room_

And of course she is, sitting on the desk chair, taking off her shoes with a wide smile. When Kagami asks how, Marinette motions towards the weird coin necklace she is wearing. Right. Magic. The most satisfactory explanation of all. Multimouse’s power must be terribly useful for infiltration missions, and travelling across the city without being seen, though it must take much longer with those tiny legs. Does Marinette’s consciousness split? If one of her selves trips and falls, do the others feel the pain? So many questions, but Kagami doesn’t ask them.

“You must be exhausted,” she says instead. “Can I get you a glass of water?”

“No, no no no!” Marinette shakes her head. “And don’t offer me food, otherwise Barkk will eat it all. No, it wasn’t tiresome at all.”

“You took the bus again?” Kagami asks.

“I should probably pay the company or give the drivers a ticket,” Marinette winces. “But yeah, I did.”

Pictures of Ladybug standing or sitting on top of buses have multiplied over the last few days, Alya has even posted some on the Ladyblog yesterday evening. Mayor Bourgeois has used it as a pretext to encourage Parisians to use public transportation if they can. It could be the most commendable thing he has done in his entire political career. Sure, it is completely useless, it’s just words with no measures, but at least he doesn’t make things worse for once. Kagami has to say, Marinette’s idea is an astute way to cover a lot of ground without having to spend too much energy. The plan has not borne its fruits yet, but it should.

“I’m pretty sure his lair is in the very centre of the city,” Marinette says. “Not just because that’s where the residual magic is the strongest, but that’s where it’s the freshest as well!”

“Could that be because…” Kagami stops to hypothesise. “Could that be because he targets monuments and they tend to be…”

“I thought of that too,” Marinette beams. “But no! I’ve mapped his and Mayura’s attacks over the last month and they took place all across Paris! I think the place where he conducts his attacks is in the third or fourth arrondissement… Or maybe the first.”

That’s where the Agrestes’ mansion is. And Marinette’s house.

“Yep, I’m pretty sure of that myself,” a small voice barks from inside Marinette’s bag. “The stench is the strongest there.”

“That speeds things up considerably,” Kagami thinks aloud.

“Not saying that I’ll have to come up with a battle plan soon,” Marinette chuckles, “but I think I’ll have to do that much sooner than I expected. That’s not the main reason I’ve come tonight, though!” She rolls up her sleeve and reveals a bracelet with a green stone in its centre.

“Have you found a way to crystallize kwami powers?” Kagami guesses.

“Close! Hey, you’re really good at this!” Marinette beams at her. “There isn’t a lot in the gem, just enough for a short shellter, you know, that magic shield? You’ve seen it when… Anyway. I want you to have it. It’ll break after you use it, so this is a one off thing…”

“I am not sure I can accept it,” Kagami says as Marinette unclasps the bracelet.

“I want to know that you’re safe,” Marinette replies. “The barrier should expand whenever something really fast is coming your way, so I’d advise you don’t wear it when you do fencing or kendo.”

“You need it more than I do,” Kagami points out.

“Maybe, but I don’t care.” Marinette retorts. “I’ll take a few more hits if that means I’m sure you won’t get hurt.”

Kagami’s throat feels oddly tight as she hears these words. “Alright,” she finally concedes. Their hands touch as Marinette gives her the bracelet. It is slightly warm to the touch, leathery, too. “I appreciate, I really do.”

She puts it in the same shoe box where she had hidden the badge for that silly friendship game, ages ago, or maybe three, four months ago, she isn’t sure. So much has happened since then, she is almost getting sentimental. Almost. Marinette’s eyes follow her every move. It makes her a little nervous… Or perhaps nervous is not the right word, there is something pleasant about the way her stomach flips. She gets back up, brushes a strand of hair out of her face and… Yes, this was definitely a blush on Marinette’s cheeks. She can feel her blood rushing to her ears.

“I always keep talking about myself and what I do,” Marinette moans. “Tell me about your day!”

Though tempting as it may be to leave out unpleasant details to give Alya a good name, Kagami decides to be entirely truthful. Marinette winces, apologises on behalf of her best friend. She stays silent about the whole Adrien situation, reminds her that if she ever wishes to talk about it, she’ll be there for that. Kagami wishes she could express her gratitude in more than words. She thinks she understand what Marinette felt that Saturday a little better now. It is getting late, she has to hold back a yawn or two, it has to be close to midnight, she thinks. They could both use some sleep.

“I’ll tell Alya not to bother you like that anymore,” Marinette says.

“She meant well, I am sure, and she is not entirely wrong, she just oversimplified things” Kagami explains. “Adrien is not a bad person, but I…”

“That’s what you were trying to tell me, during the whole Bourgeois disaster?” Marinette really remembers everything.

“When he kissed me,” Kagami says, “I did not feel anything, and I thought that would change, only it did not. It is not bad, I can manage, but a relationship should be more than ‘manageable’ I think.”

“Breaking up with him would be the sound thing to do, but also incredibly difficult,” Marinette nods in understanding.

“You have not exactly met my mother but you know the sort of person she is,” Kagami winces. “I do not even want to think about Adrien or his father.”

“I’ve told you I’d be with you for as long as you need me to,” Marinette whispers, and she takes Kagami’s hands in hers. “And that means for that too.”

Kagami surprises them both when she gives Marinette a kiss on the cheek after she’s opened the French window.

“Take care,” she says in a low voice. ‘And have a good night.”

“I… Yeah, goodnight,” Marinette stammers. “Talk to you tomorrow!”

“Talk to you then!” Kagami nods.

“Mullo, get squeaky!”

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, Marinette is gone. Kagami looks out the window, and sure enough, thirty seconds later, Ladybug appears out of thin air above a roof and lands dramatically. Kagami tiptoes back to her room, climbs in her bed and falls asleep almost instantly, with a satisfied smile on her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> Trans rights are human rights.
> 
> That's it for this note.


	10. Tension

“Your footwork is all wrong, I can hear it!” Mother booms, and though the men does a lot to muffle the noise, it does nothing to make her voice less disagreeable.

Kagami grits her teeth and goes back on her guard, tightens her grip on her shinai. She readies herself for another attack, it almost lands, but like all her other tries, it is doomed from the start. If not for her armour, she thinks her ribs would be broken from all these blows. There is no denying it, she is completely outmatched. With skills like these, she wonders why Mother has wasted her time becoming an Olympic sabre champion if it is kendo she truly excels in. Perhaps she is trying to step in her own father’s footsteps, first greatness through sports, then a reinvesting of the family fortune into a company to achieve “greatness” on the stock market. Her creating a firm like he has seems unlikely, especially since she has been removed from the family company’s board of executives for reasons Kagami doesn’t know. Mother has mentioned meeting up with people in Paris to launch… Something. That seems fantasist, unlikely.

“Mother, could I take five minutes, please?” Kagami huffs. “We have been at it for two hours now…”

“Do you think our glorious ancestors would have stopped?” Mother bellows. “You have been nothing but a disappointment today, you have wasted my time making mistakes you should be ashamed of, I should hope you understand you will not stop until I say so. Is that clear?”

“Hey, ma’am, is everything alright?”

Oh great, now Mother is going to scare a complete stranger half to death. So maybe them training right next to the latest outdoors Gabriel photo session wasn’t the greatest idea. When they had discussed it the night before over dinner, it had sounded nice and, according to M. Agreste, the perfect occasion to introduce people to the noble art of kendo. And it should have been, Adrien’s name always attracts fans and curious people of all kinds, and seeing two people doing kendo not far away from the shoot could get them interested. So far, it is not going that way at all, and Mother is about to make things much worse, and everyone at the Jardin des Tuileries is about to see her terrorise someone who has just enquired about her wellbeing.

“Can you not see I am busy teaching my daughter?” Mother turns to the poor photographer. “You should go back to your work, young man, unless you want me to tell my friend M. Agreste that you would rather disturb—”

“Y-yes, ma’am, I’m leaving, I’m leaving,” the man says shakily.

So far, very few people have stopped to watch them train, and Kagami doesn’t blame them. It is a very one-sided duel, and Adrien Agreste is a dozen metres or so away from them, so people will obviously try to see him rather than the weird lady screaming and beating up a kid in an armour with a long stick. It is starting to get unpleasantly hot underneath all these clothes, the sun is almost at its zenith. Kagami tries to do everything like Mother has told her. It’s never enough. She’s never enough. Only that isn’t true, part of her wants to object. At least there’s only a half hour left before they stop for lunch, around the same time the photo shoot is meant to end.

Passers-by come and go, Adrien groupies, too, gathering near the photographer’s spotlights and reflectors, trying to get autographs. Kagami can’t say she is paying attention to them, Mother is keeping her too busy to that. Her patience wears thin. She can’t stay in that defensive role all the time, that way, she can only postpone the inevitable by a few seconds. Her stance shifts, and when Mother strikes from above, Kagami is out of its reach. She advances, and her own weapon nearly touches her opponent’s shoulder. Too slow. Mother’s shinai comes slamming against her back, almost throwing her off balance. That was… Unexpectedly dirty, while still technically in the rules. Kagami knows she won’t be able to complain about this unless she wants to make herself look like a fool.

She has gotten close to a touch once, she can give it another go. Once more, she waits until Mother is about to land the finishing blow to counterattack, and once more she narrowly misses. Third time isn’t the charm either, but is better than her previous try. Perhaps the fourth, then? She sidesteps Mother’s attack and swings her shinai without putting too much strength in the motion, and clenches her jaw, closes her eyes… She has always pictured her first touch scored against Mother as something spectacular, a moment of truth, the end of an era. Instead, she is just amazed it has worked at all.

“I might need to put on some protective equipment after all,” Mother says. “I believe we should be done for today. I expect your next performance will be more satisfactory.”

There are words of praise hidden in there, Kagami is too winded to smile as she takes off the heavy helmet and the cuirass. They ought to find a place with air-conditioning soon. This might be the most exhausted she has ever been doing kendo, and though Mother is too proud to admit it, her body betrays her, tiredness is written all over her face. Finally, Kagami peels the gloves off her shaking hands, tries to ball her fingers into a fist. She is definitely taking a shower as soon as they get back home. She’s glad that tomorrow is a Sunday, she will get to rest her arms and legs. She forces herself to do a few stretches so that she won’t regret not doing them later.

It would seem that Adrien’s photo shoot is wrapping up as well, people are putting the spotlights and the equipment back in a black van, the gathering of groupies shrinks; Adrien himself is in a kind of tent, from what Kagami can guess; his bodyguard is waiting there, and unless he is a decoy… Yes, Adrien must be getting changed with the other models. How M. Agreste got the authorisation for any of this, especially at the Jardin des Tuileries, is easy to guess. Being a family friend of the Bourgeois’ has its perks, having to bear with them seems like a small price to pay considering all the advantages at the end of the line. It would almost make tolerating Chloé worth it.

Mother doesn’t move from her position, Kagami doesn’t dare ask her if they can go back to the car. Are they waiting for Adrien? Is that really what Mother wants to do? Is it her way to reward her? Kagami wishes she could say she appreciates the gesture, but she’d rather just go home, rest a little and get ready for this afternoon’s tutoring session. What she wants doesn’t matter, not when she is with Mother. Only, she isn’t sure it’s ever been true. They wait and wait, and even though they are standing in the shadow of a chestnut tree, the heat is making her slightly uncomfortable. Her water is lukewarm. The groupies get discouraged and move away.

When the last of them is gone, the models exit the tent, and leading the way is Adrien. He has told her many times over that he does not particularly likes modelling, that he is only doing it to make his father happy; she wouldn’t be able to guess it by watching him chatting with his fellow… Colleagues, would be the word? He had seemed to be in his natural element earlier, he looks happy to be here now. It takes some time for him to notice her and Mother, when he does his grin widens and he all but runs to their side. One day, he’ll become someone’s son-in-law, he already has already perfected the role.

“Mme Tsurugi,” he says, “I couldn’t compliment you before, but you made me wish my parents had encouraged me to learn kendo rather than climbing, this was wonderful!”

“I would love nothing more than to tell you about the noble art,” Mother says. “For now, however, I am needed elsewhere. I am sure you will have no trouble bringing Kagami home, yes?”

“It will be a pleasure, Mme Tsurugi!” Adrien answers.

Mother’s presence isn’t required anywhere, Kagami knows it, but Adrien doesn’t. So this is Mother’s grand scheme to allow her to spend more time with her boyfriend, a drive home. Adrien wishes Mothera safe trip and a good day. They watch her go to her car in silence, Adrien checks his phone, Kagami wishes she could do the same with hers, but since she has left it at her flat… She barely notices the bodyguard’s presence before he motions at her kendo gear with a grunt, pointing at it and then at himself. That is kind and considerate of him. Well, not really, this is certainly part of what he must be paid for, now that she thinks of it. She gives him the do and the men, alongside her shinai, he handles them with more care than his stature could ever have suggested. He runs to catch up with Mother and returns two minutes later, visibly out of breath but proud of himself.

Adrien takes it at their cue to leave too. His own car has been parked on the complete other side of the Jardin des Tuileries. More walking, then. Fine. Adrien takes her hand in his, tells her about the photo shoot, since, in his words, she was “too busy to focus on it” which is true enough. He discusses the make up artists and the other models, he apparently knows them all by name and talks about them as though they were old acquaintances, which some of them probably are, the photographers in particular. One of them was at the Bourgeois anniversary party, wasn’t he?

“Yes! You noticed!” Adrien all but claps. “Vincent is everywhere, I don’t know how he does it, it’s not like there is a shortage of people who know how to use a camera in this city, but anyway… He speaks Italian when he is stressed out, or when he is really happy, he’s got the weirdest ideas sometimes, but I like him all the same!”

“I see,” Kagami says.

“And he’s hired that new girl, I can’t say I remember what her name is… Chase, I think? She’s from California, or Oregon or Washington, I’m not sure, she was apparently trying to get a kind of Richard Ave-something kind of mood to her pictures, at least that’s what she told me… I’m not sure about her.”

“Oh,” Kagami nods.

“I don’t know, I guess I am just used to working with Vincent so everyone else feels off at first,” Adrien thinks aloud. “It’s not like she’s staying for long anyway, from what I’ve gathered. ”

“Is that so?” Kagami raises an eyebrow. If he could only let her breathe, if they could walk in the shadows of the trees rather than in the middle of the gravel path…

“Yeah, Ishe’ll be travelling across Europe with her partner. I think it’s great!”

“It is,” Kagami says.

He has noticed the one-sidedness of the conversation, and his polite smile turns into something more mischievous, almost cat-like. Kagami’s stomach fills with dread. She knows where this is going. He lets go of her hand, reaches for her waist, and —

“No.”

They come to a halt.

“What?” Adrien’s grin falls a little, and his gesture stops.

“I said no,” she repeats more confidently. “I know you want to kiss me, but no.”

“Why?” Instead of a smile, it is confusion she sees on his face.

“Because I do not want you to,” Kagami sighs. “I have had a tiresome morning, I am exhausted, I could use a shower, and I am not in the mood for a kiss.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

Is it this hard to understand?

“Not even one kiss?” There is that insistence that Adrien must be mistaking for playfulness.

“I did say ‘no’ just a few seconds ago, did I not?” Kagami shots back. “You asking me over and over won’t make me give in.”

“You really are in a bad mood, huh.” Adrien smirks. “You don’t really mean it, do you?” Is that his idea of banter? It reminds her of someone, but she can’t put her finger on it…

“I should not have to justify myself to you, especially for that sort of things. I simply do not want to kiss you right now,” Kagami replies coldly. “This is the end of this discussion.”

Adrien says nothing for the rest of the walk, he does not hold her hand, does not open the car door for her, he barely looks at her and sits as far away from her as his seat will allow. Is that supposed to make her reconsider, because he is all broody and upset? But Adrien isn’t an idiot, he is with no doubt the smartest boy her age she knows, he has perfectly understood what she has told him, he just doesn’t like it. And he must believe that she will give in, and let him do what he wants if she sees him like that. If this is his line of thinking, then it really is insulting. They ride in silence until they reach Kagami’s destination. She bids the two men goodbye.

For a second, her stomach sinks when she realises she can’t find her keys… Until she remembers she hasn’t brought them with her at all. Weariness is making her forgetful. Mother answers the intercom and lets her in. Just this once, she takes the lift. It is an old thing that won’t get her to the third floor faster than if she walked, but she does need to truly rest her legs. She sits on a step to take off her shoes, and winces when she has to get back to her feet. The door has been left ajar, waiting on the other side if the promise of intrusive questions and of clean clothes. The latter outweighs the former.

When Mother asks her how it went, Kagami tells a half-truth, excuses herself and rushes to the bathroom. She deserves more than a quick shower today, she decides. She watches the bath fill itself and zones out for a little while, and the reality of what she has just done settles in. To her own surprise, she comes to the conclusion that she is satisfied with the way she handled this entire situation. Well, not entirely, though she doesn’t know if Adrien is one to hold grudges, she is fairly certain she has just made things more complicated between the two of them. But still, she has stood her ground, she has postponed their next kiss, if it ever comes.

The water is at the perfect temperature, she decides. She turns on the radio, to her favourite Paris-based jazz station, throws her clothes in the laundry basket and submerges herself in the bath. She could stay there for hours until her fingertips are wrinkly and the water has become lukewarm. Not that she would actually do that, of course, she is doing some tutoring this afternoon and she wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world, and she would hate herself for being lazy. Still, she is sure Marinette wouldn’t mind if they started a little later. Mother, on the other hand, certainly wants to have lunch soon.

Kagami drags herself out of the bath, gets dressed and goes to the kitchen. Mother is having dessert already, and listening to an information station. Kagami takes a look inside the cooker and finds… Rice and steam-cooked carrots? Complaining about food is beneath her, and yet she can’t help but wish it had been something a little tastier. She eats and half-listens. She can’t say she cares much about the stock market and what such and such economists have to say on the matter. Mother, however, seems very interested in it all. The show hosts speak in flat voices, until…

_“Flash news! An akuma attack is currently taking place near the Châtelet Les Halles Metro station! We advise our listeners to get as far away from there as possible!”_

_“Though they shouldn’t have to worry for too long, Grégoire! Our heroes are already on it! More on this story as it develops! And now, back to the Paris Stock Exchange! So, Antoine, tell us…”_

Mother’s presence seems irrelevant, Kagami has to know what is going on. She rushes to her room and returns with her phone. She doesn’t even bother checking her messages and goes straight to the Ladyblog. There is a live feed right on the front page. There is a lot of smoke, intermittent yellow flashes, sparkles… If she had to make a guess, she’d say this is an electricity-based villain? Ladybug is nowhere to be seen, though her yo-yo string is wrapped all around the steel and glass structure, certainly to keep it from collapsing on itself. The flashes stop, everything goes still, and then a bright pinkish light. Kagami lets out a sigh of relief as a familiar red and black silhouette walks into the frame.

_“Hey! Everything is fine now, you can come out of your hiding places!”_

“Kagami, what have I said about phones at lunch?” Mother says harshly.

“Oh. Yes, Mother,” Kagami apologises. “I am sorry. One of my fencing partner lives near les Halles, I worried about him is all.”

“Did you not hear? He is fine, everyone is. Put down that phone and finish your meal.”

She does as she’s been told, and even though Mother leaves the kitchen after a while, she manages to stay obedient and leave her phone alone until she is in the bathroom again, brushing her teeth. She checks her messages, now would be a good time to actually read them. She has received two from Marinette, the oldest wishing her a good day, the more recent one telling her to stay safe, one from Nino who has sent her a recommendation list of his favourite shows and films, one from Alya with a link to the live stream on the Ladyblog, Nothing from Adrien, not yet at least. She supposes it is understandable, he must need some time to calm down, swallow his pride and apologise, which she expects he will do before the end of the day.

* * *

The next thirty minutes or so are spent answering texts, yawning, crossing things out of Nino’s long list — he means well but she can’t possibly watch half of these things, some aren’t even on Webflix— and stretching her legs. And trying to keep herself from playing what has happened with Adrien over and over in her head, which she knows would be pointless. She manages to shrink her watchlist to three series, about a baker's dozen films and a couple of cartoons that don’t look half-bad. She knows what she’ll be doing with her free time in the near future, and now that she’s found a way to prevent her computer from turning itself off automatically, she might lose a few hours of sleep, but she has the entire history of cinema to catch up with so it'll all be worth it. Her phone buzzes.

**2:44PM**

**Marinette:** _how would you like to go to a museum with me? id be inviting you of course_

**2:45PM**

**Marinette:** _well technically m. agreste, he got me a pass, i think i mentioned that_

**2:46PM**

**Kagami:** _You are brilliant! I would like that very much! Was there a place in particular you wanted to go to?_

 **Marinette:** _im asking you what YOU want!!_

**2:47PM**

**Kagami:** _I have been to Orsay when I was a child but I do not remember it very well_

 **Marinette:** _its settled then!! ill pick you up in fifteen-ish minutes?_

**2:48PM**

**Kagami:** _Perfect!_

Before she does anything else, Kagami puts on lighter clothes. She can’t wear her boring customised school uniform, especially not now that summer is on its way. High waister linen trousers, a shirt with rolled sleeves… Not bad, not bad! Marinette would be able to come up with a much better outfit herself, but that will be for another day. She puts on some sunscreen and goes to the living room. Making up conveniently distorted versions of the truth has become easy for her, easier than she could ever have expected to, Mother buys her reason for leaving earlier without asking questions (“I should hope you are getting paid more”). Still, Kagami knows she can’t be too careful, she brings a bag full of school things with her, and puts more money in her wallet.

At exactly 3 p.m., Marinette sends her a text to tell her she is waiting in front of her building. Kagami resists the temptation to rush and open the door right away. She manages to last a grand total of twenty seconds, during which she notices that her phone is almost out of battery. It doesn’t distress her at all. Twenty seconds… All things considered, isn’t so bad. The coolness of the terrazzo steps she has been sitting on gives way to a slightly warm breeze. The heat is more bearable than three hours ago, the sun is no longer glaring at her. She has checked online, they shouldn’t have to stay out there for longer than twenty minutes. Marinette has her sunglasses on and a wide grin. Kagami finds herself smiling back.

“Hey!” Marinette says.

“Hi,” Kagami replies as she sits on the bicycle’s rear rack. She wraps her arms around Marinette’s waist, and the girl starts pedalling right away.

“So, how are you?” Marinette asks. “You didn’t tell me how kendo went this morning, so I assume it was alright?”

“Kendo? Yes, it was alright,” Kagami nods. “I had an argument with Adrien right after that, which was… Less alright.”

“I’m sorry… If I’m not intruding, how come?” Though they can’t see each other, Kagami imagines that Marinette has raised her eyebrows. “You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to.”

“It is fine,” Kagami says. “He wanted to kiss me, I was not really in the mood for that, and he dislikes being told he cannot do certain things, and he handled it like a toddler.”

“Adrien, throwing a tantrum? That doesn’t sound like him!”

“No, no, he did not do that, he just stopped talking to me and made faces like I had kicked a puppy in front of him.”

“He doesn’t behave like that at school,” Marinette mumbles to herself. “I believe you, Kagami, it’s just… I’ve rarely seen him in a bad mood, or react negatively to things in general, so I’m surprised.”

They’ve taken a scenic road again, not necessarily the fastest, but definitely the best-looking, the sort you could put in a romantic comedy set in Paris. They cross the water at the Pont de l’Alma and follow along the Seine. Kagami can count the times she has been in the city’s Rive Gauche on her fingers. And to think that it’s just a few hundred meters away from where she trains with Mother, that she could walk for a few minutes and get there if she wished to. She can see the distant shape of the Louvre, the Couffaine houseboat…

“How did your thing go?” Kagami asks. “You looked fine on video, but…”

“It went really well, actually,” Marinette beams. “I’d already been to the Halles under similar circumstances before, so I had an idea what to be on the lookout for.”

“It seemed that you had everything under control,” Kagami says.

“The problem was electrical in nature, so it was fairly easy to deal with,” Marinette shrugs, as much as she can without making the bike crash. “I wish my colleague had been more efficient, he was in a foul mood and he didn’t listen to my advice very well, so I handled things on my own, for the most part.”

“That does not seem very professional,” Kagami observes.

“He isn’t!” Marinette agrees. “I don’t think he’s fully understood what his job was. When he does it, he does it very well, but he has his moments.”

“Alya’s blog theorised about the two of you being mad at each other more than once,” Kagami points out.

“That was before she got better at actually investigating,” Marinette says. “And I don’t think he was mad at me, it must have been something in his civilian life. I’d be a hypocrite for saying that your private life should have no consequences on your… Err, professional life, but I wish he tried to be as professional as he can, like me…”

“You would not fire him if you had the chance,” Kagami states.

“No I wouldn’t,” Marinette shakes her head. “Like I said, he has his fair share of flaws but he’s good at what he does when he does it seriously, and now that he’s toned down the flirting, he’s a pretty good friend, and in that milieu, you need friends! Anyway, I think we’ve arrived!”

While Marinette plays a game of “let’s put my bike somewhere where it won’t get stolen or crushed by a car”, Kagami looks at their destination. She has visited the Musée d’Orsay once, when she was a child and when Mother could still see; though she only has fuzzy memories, she can clearly remember feeling like the building used to be a train station at some point… She can still see it now. There is even an inscription etched in the stone, that reads “Paris-Orléans” below the great clock. How she wishes she knew more about architecture… She would certainly be able to appreciate the place even more than she does now. It is impressive, with its high ceiling shaped like a sort of round arch. What is inside will be even more interesting… The museum’s collection mostly consists in impressionist paintings, if she remembers well. She heads inside, Marinette follows.

Definitely a former train station, with a great clock to mirror the one from the outsideFortunately for them, it doesn’t seem awfully crowded, sure, they are far from being alone, but the tourist season only starts in a few weeks. Kagami learns museums are apparently free for French people under the age of eighteen when Marinette walks to the ticket office. The clerk eyes her suspiciously, checks her ID card and prints a ticket for her. They don’t seem to be a fan of their work, and though Marinette can be a very empathetic person, she still looks mildly annoyed when she steps away from the office, but the expression vanishes when she slips Kagami the pass M. Agreste had given her.

“I haven’t been here in years, you?” Marinette asks her as they make their way through the threshold.

“When I was five, I think,” Kagami says. “I do not remember a lot.”

“Let’s create new memories, then!” Marinette smiles.

She reaches for Kagami’s hand and leads her forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> Do I hate Adrien Agreste as a character? No, of course not. Do I think he would handle rejection like he does here in this fic? Well, I'm not inventing anything, watch Frozer and Ladybug again. I'm trying to do him justice by making him more than just the sunshine (though sometimes sad) child. Also keep in mind that you're reading it all through Kagami's perspective!
> 
> Black Lives Matter.
> 
> Black Trans Lives Matter.
> 
> Take care out there.


	11. Confirmation

The linoleum floor squeaks underneath her foot as Kagami lunges — the noise as grating as ever— but on the bright side of things the air conditioning has been fixed, which makes it bearable to fence with the full gear on. That’s one more point for her, which she can add to the… She has lost count of her touches, which is probably for the best. She walks back to her en garde mark, waits for her opponent to do the same. With no referee to supervise them, they have to do everything themselves. Usually, things are organised, rather well, so that someone is here to make sure there is no foul play or slacking off. Not today.

M. D’Argencourt has been straightforward with them all, perhaps too straightforward: he wants them to learn as much as possible over the next two weeks, since his lessons will be over after that and they won’t see him til September. That is synonymous with him demonstrating new techniques and encouraging competitiveness between his “disciples” as he calls them. Not his wisest initiative, Kagami has to say. Everyone in the gymnasium but the fencing master and herself have the brevet des collèges exam to look forward to, adding what is a hobby for the most of them as a new source of stress… It’s not the way she would do it if she were in his shoes. Instead, she would recognise that time is against her, for one.

The end result isn’t great, to say the least. To the others, it is exhausting, to her it’s dull, terribly dull. She already knows all these moves, and since it is the Monday group, she outclasses everyone without having to truly try. She has been paired with one Victoire Lecoq whom she has talked to perhaps twice in almost six months of sharing M. D’Argencourt’s classes. The girl isn’t a bad opponent per say, she respects the rules, she is polite, but just like all the fencers Kagami has faced today, she is easy to beat. Scoring a touch against her hardly seems like an achievement, doing so a dozen times in a row makes her feel a little jaded. She needs to look the bright side of things: she won’t be too exhausted when she gets home.

Yay.

All things considered, she is having it easy. She could have ended up with a much worse adversary, and be angered instead of simply bored. At least Victoire is giving her best, in fact she is overdoing it. And so, in return, Kagami tries to make her defeat honourable, prolongs their exchanges the best she can while not making it too obvious, holds back a little. It is tolerable, the girl is competent enough for Kagami not to worry about accidentally harming her, her attempts at attacking are acceptable, her footwork is adequate for the most part, her being a bronze medallist at some regional competition makes sense.

Keeping her focus on Victoire is doable. but then again, it seems a little futile knowing that M. D’Argencourt will make them change partners in a couple of minutes. And there he comes to explain Victoire why her attempt at feinting has failed. Being an instructor suits him, when he doesn’t get carried away by his over enthusiasm. Kagami takes a step back to let the fencing master take her place. Her gaze goes across the room. Adrien has yet to stop ignoring her, he hasn’t as much as acknowledged her existence in the last two days. Has he not gotten over her not wanting to kiss him just once? She has given it more thought about Saturday, there is something she wants to tell him, and she won’t be able to if he avoids her. Luckily for her, M. D’Argencourt’s predictability will allow to remedy to that.

“Kagami, your last opponent for the day will be Adrien,” he says, “Victoire, go see Enzo. Off you trot, you two!”

And so they do. Victoire, a little relieved, Kagami with more dread in her lungs than she would have liked. She keeps her fencing mask on. Adrien’s composure doesn’t betray his disquiet when he sees her walking in his direction. She sees right through him, she really knows all of his tells, the way he fights back his tentative at looking away, the slight tension in his legs, too subtle for most to notice, but not for her. He is good at this, concealing what he really thinks and feels in public, even more so than she is. She is better than him at reading people. Since he won’t talk to her, she will.

“On the count of three, we will begin,” she says. “Do not hold back, know I won’t. Once this is over, I would like us to talk, if this is fine by you.”

For a moment, Adrien looks almost openly uncomfortable. Still, he nods, puts his fencing mask on and mirrors her pose on the other side of the piste. They count up and their bout begins. Adrien’s stance is slightly off, he moves as though he were wielding a staff or a baton instead of a sabre. His loss. She feints, lunges, pushes her adversary’s blade out of her way. It has been a long time since they last fenced against each other, and though Kagami knows she’ll defeat him anyway, she is unsettled by how easy it is to score the first touch. Adrien himself seems surprised. She can’t believe they had come to a draw all these months ago, when she had been so upset she wouldn’t be able to enter M. D’Argencourt’s school that…

But that was then and this is now. They still have ten minutes to go before the end of this course, this is a bout, not an argument disguised as one, she is better than this. Adrien continues to move in a peculiar way, not against the rules of the sport but not quite the way a professional fencer would move either. Again, it won’t make him win. When he lunges at her, his balance is slightly off, which can only mean he is reading himself for an advance and another attack. She stops him dead in his track before he can do so. He straightens up and returns to his mark. This goes on for a little while, Kagami doesn’t let her guard down, Adrien is obviously putting a lot of effort in this too.

When at last he scores a point of his own, Kagami is nine touches ahead of him, and praying that they can get this over with. He has proved himself to be a perfectly capable fencer, just not good enough to keep up with her. This is only the confirmation of what both of them have known for months. He doesn’t get discouraged, his obstinacy can be a flaw, here on the piste it is a strength. The bout continues, Adrien is back on the offensive, trying to act quickly so that he won’t hand her the chance to riposte on a silver platter, if she has to guess. He is fast, undeniably. She is faster. The way he tries to retreat almost resembles the beginning of a somersault, it’s almost as if he were at odds with his own fencing style.

M. D’Argencourt steals glances at them from across the gymnasium every now and then, but stays with the students he is helping. This is the right thing to do, he can trust her and Adrien to do things by the book, they do not need his supervision. The bout stretches out, she scores her fifteenth point, and there’s still a few minutes to go. It would be a good time to end, No slacking off, they are the star students, models for the others. She’ll get to rest her legs and to get lost in her thoughts later, for now, she has to do what she does best; deflects Adrien’s attacks with relative ease and ripostes without breaking a sweat. Her sabre meets its mark. When does it not? Hopefully, her fencing partners will be more challenging next year.

“Everyone, this is the end of today’s lesson, please do not stay too long in the locker rooms,” the fencing master announces. He sighs and adds, “Mme Ohm’s yoga group will be there soon and I assured her we would not be late…”

Of all the adults she knows, he is the most honest, Kagami thinks. Well, she would put Marinette’s parents on the list, but she has yet to meet them properly. So M. D’Argencourt is number one. She does as she is told, hurries to the locker room, changes into her civilian clothes, puts her fencing gear in her locker, makes sure her hair isn’t too much of a mess and heads towards Françoise Dupont’s entrance. No mop of blond hair ahead of her in the corridor, which can mean three things. Either Adrien is already outside, or he is still changing. Or he could have decided to avoid her altogether just like he has done for the last fifty hours or so, hopped in his car and ask the chauffeur to drive away, that would be quite cowardly of him but not impossible.

Her first hypothesis is proven correct, much to her relief. There he is, right in front of the entrance, not quite looking her in the eyes; She knows that trick, looking at people’s foreheads gives the illusion of eye contact without really having to do so, she’s used it too. They walk away from Françoise Dupont, a little closer to their respective cars, where the other students won’t eavesdrop on them, at least not as much as they would otherwise. Her resolve does not falter. She clutches the small bracelet around her left wrist, the green stone at its centre stays dull. Adrien takes a deep breath.

“So…” he scratches the nape of his neck.

“So,” Kagami repeats. “I would like know why you have been ignoring me all this time. You could have said ‘hello’ at the very least. I sent you a message to ask you how you were yesterday, I sent you one today as well. How long were you planning on avoiding me? Until tomorrow evening when you can give me a flower and pull my chair out for me?”

“I thought you were mad at me,” Adrien mumbles.

“Why so?” she asks. She needs to hear him say it out loud.

“You know why.” Adrien looks away.

He can’t _ever_ be wrong, can he? And when he is, he flashes a smile, or does a sad face, and is immediately forgiven. Admitting his faults is something he may never have had to do before. He’s not even trying.

“I see,” she says. “I was not. Mad at you for all this time, that is—”

“But Saturday morning…”

“My annoyance was justified, then,” Kagami interjects. “I said I did not want your kiss, you did not want to hear it, it is that simple. Your insistence irked me, yes, your not saying goodbye as well. I had the time to calm down since then, otherwise I would not have texted you over your wellbeing at all. You ignoring me was irksome as well, but I have decided not to let it get in the way of our conversation. Am I annoyed today? Yes, slightly. Mad? I do not believe so.”

“Oh, I… This is good,” Adrien’s voice gets warmer. “You’re not mad at me… I’m relieved. I’m sorry you were annoyed by me. So, things can go back to normal now!”

“This was not why I asked you to stay a little longer,” Kagami says. This is it, no backing off now.

“Really?” Adrien quirks an eyebrow. “What for, then?”

For a split second, the bracelet’s green gem shimmers.

* * *

She all but bolts out of the car, jams her key into the keyhole, rushes up the stairs, skips more than a few steps, undoes her shoelaces with so such hurry that she almost breaks them. If she is lucky, Mother won’t be there, and if she isn’t there, there will be no problem, she repeats to herself. She is very social on Mondays, isn’t she? Perhaps… Perhaps Mother is out with her friends again and everything will be alright. It’s only fifteen minutes and dinner isn’t before half an hour anyway, what could possibly happen? She takes a deep breath, unlocks the door to her flat. No noise coming from anywhere, the lights are off… She worried herself sick for nothing.

“You are late. Where were you?”

Shit.

“Good evening, Mother,” Kagami greets her, her voice perfectly neutral. “I was at M. D’Argencourt’s fencing class and —”

“And it ends at seven sharp,” Mother remarks, as she leans against her bedroom door’s frame. “Which means that about ten minutes later, at most, you are to be in the car. Thanks to Tatsu’s programming, the drive itself is half an hour long when traffic is particularly bad, usually it takes twenty minutes, yes? Do you know what time it is, Kagami? ”

“In one minute, it will be eight o’clock, Mother.” She does her best not to show any emotion but resignation. Her nails dig into her palm. “I am sorry for my lateness. I promise it will not happen again.”

“May I know what your excuse is?”

Kagami would have been happy to tell her, had she not been interrupted halfway through her sentence. She does not speak the thought out loud, that would be like signing her death sentence. “I had… A conversation with Adrien,” she says. “We have reached the conclusion that we needed both a break.”

“The summer holiday start in two weeks for Adrien,” Mother retorts. “I doubt there is much need for discussing that. I understand that young Adrien’s schedule keeps him busy, but you should have the dignity not to complain. The ones deciding what we will do in the summer are M. Agreste and I, not you children. Making plans is entirely futile.”

“With all due respect, Mother, this is not what I meant,” Kagami says.

“Oh, pray tell, then!”

“Adrien and I talked, and we have decided to stop dating for now”

The way Mother straightens up and walks towards her makes a part of her regret telling the truth. It is the right thing to do, Mother would have found out at some point anyway, and then… Kagami braces herself for what is about to come, whatever it will be. Before she realises it, her feet have turned into an en garde position, the bracelet around her wrist shines brightly, a cold bead of sweat runs down her back. What will it be this time? Getting yelled at? More intense training? Her phone and computer being taken away for a day or two? The silent treatment?

“You should have come to me before making such a major decision,” Mother hisses. “You could have come and told me what made you think this was the proper thing to do, and I would have dissuaded you!”

Wasn’t she the one to give her all these useless books and magazines instead of doing that? “I did not want to bother you,” Kagami says. “You have more important things to take care of than the dating life of a teenager, Mother.”

“This is not about you!” Mother roars. “Do you have the slightest idea of what you have just done? If the Agrestes turn their backs on us, then everyone in Paris will! You know how influential Gabriel is, and yet you have decided to jeopardise everything on a whim? I do not even want to know what or who given you such a foolish idea!”

“We have not become enemies,” Kagami says calmly. “We talked peacefully, and parted ways on good terms.”

“Are you idiotic enough to believe that not being enemies is enough? We have a history of partnership, you may not know that, of course, since you like to ignore your heritage, but we have helped them immensely in the past… Do you think I risked my position at my Father’s company for nothing? No, it was for the Agrestes, they had shown interest in… But you would not understand; no, instead you wish to throw it all away!”

“I asked him to tell his father not to cancel tomorrow’s dinner!” It’s hard not to yell back, so hard. “Even if we were to break up someday, we would still be friends!” She hopes this is true.

“And what would you do if you broke up with him?” Mother’s scowl is less pronounced than before, but still there. “Run off with some lowly boy from a lowly family? Why, of course you would, you would only think of yourself, you would sully my blood and name with no hesitation!”

“Mother… I told you what I had to say,” Kagami clenches her teeth. “Adrien and I are still friends, we might resume our romantic relationship in the future, or we may not, and my dating life is mine to deal with. This conversation serves no purpose anymore. I will go to the bathroom and take a shower now. We can discuss this further once I am clean.”

She doesn’t wait for an answer and closes the door behind her. Her hands shake as she turns the faucet, and she isn’t sure whether it is out of anger, out of fear or out of exhaustion. Mother won’t ever listen to her, not really. Mother will never accept her for who she is. It shouldn’t feel like news, truly it isn’t. Having it confirmed once more hurts, and fills her with rage. The water dulls her senses, she hears faint noises coming from the corridor, but nothing she make out distinctly. She wishes she didn’t have to step out of the shower at some point. It is a cowardly desire. This isn’t her, she isn’t a small things that needs protecting.

When she gets to her room, her bed is undone, the blanket has been thrown on her chair, her pillow is down. Her books are scattered on the floor, the content of her wardrobe too, for the most part, her drawers have been flipped over. The noises from earlier make sense. This is… New. At least all that is under her bed, her laptop, her journal, the red suit, all that truly matters has not been damaged. At least she has been smart enough to bring her bag with her to the bathroom, otherwise it would have endured the same treatment as her shelves and everything else. The prickling sensation on her fingertips makes it hard to properly focus. Not giving in to anger has never been so difficult. Anger will get her nowhere, at least not in this situation. She can’t sleep in a room like that. She takes a deep breath and gets herself to work.

* * *

Putting all her things back where they were is fastidious and slow and definitely not what she had planned on doing this evening. Some of her books are now dog-eared, she will have to send the laundry service about half her clothes — has Mother threaded on them as well? — considering how ruffled they are. It is a little past 9 p.m. when she is done at last. There is a plate of cold celery purée waiting for her in the kitchen, and an empty seat opposite her. She takes her phone out of her pocket, types a text. After that, it’s the same old routine, putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, going to the bathroom, brushing her teeth, returning to her her room, opening her journal and getting ready to write.

She is about to start her first sentence when she remembers she also needs to write her entry for last Sunday. If she listened to herself, she’d be on her bed watching something silly on her laptop, doing something that requires no concentration at all. She’ll hate herself more if she doesn’t to what she has set herself out to do, she ultimately decides. She turns the page, the ticket from the Musée d’Orsay pokes out slightly, like a bookmark of some sorts. Seeing this brings a slight smile to her lips. She puts it to its place, writes the entry for Sunday, one for Monday. Some habits die hard, she finds herself fighting back the need to downplay Mother’s behaviour. Just as she finishes her last sentence, her phone buzzes.

**9:59PM**

**Marinette:** _im sorry things are difficult with your mum and adrien, if you wanna talk about it some more ill be here for that! please dont apologise for not answering my texts right away, its ok!_

Perhaps she won’t be watching some silly show after all.

**10:00PM**

**Kagami:** _Will you drop by tonight? I understand if you would rather not._

**10:01PM**

**Marinette:** _tonights urban exploration is difficult so far, my business partner didnt show up_

**Marinette:** _on the bright side i think i can cross the 3rd arrondissement off my list, and prolly the 4th by the day after tomorrow_

**Marinette:** _that has taken way too long but i think im getting real close to catching him! it helps that im keeping my dog in my bag so that it can sniff around_

**10:02PM**

**Kagami:** _Is there anything I can do to help in that regard?_

**Marinette:** _ill tell you as soon as i am sure i have found the place, and yeah! well talk about it wednesday?_

**Marinette:** _i should have more time to strategise since m. agreste postponed my internship to thursday_

**Marinette:** _oh by the way! i finally chose a few of the pics i took at the museum! here they are!_

One of the so many great things with Marinette is that she always tries to keep her promises, and that most of the time, she succeeds. Kagami would have been happy to take pictures of her own, but with her phone’s battery dying on her almost right away… Not that she would’d need them, she doesn’t think she will ever forget this Saturday afternoon. Marinette’s photographs are well shot, because of course she is good at fashion design _and_ photography _and_ drawing. She can play that sequence in a chronological order, the first pictures are from the outside of the building, then inside, pictures of paintings and statues, she remembers their names for the most part, recognises the artists.

In the middle of all these pictures two stand out, and they are right next one another. The first is that of a painting, a pond with white water lilies, the reflection of a cloudy blue sky on the pond. Monet… A phone screen doesn’t do it justice. If she were to become a millionaire someday, and if her good conscience didn’t keep her from doing so, she would buy the painting, have a room in her mansion dedicated solely to it. It’s the way the different shades of blue blend together, the clouds that almost seem to be moving, the tranquility of it all, the beauty of the flowers, too. She might just have found her favourite painting.

On the second picture, she sees Marinette and herself, a selfie with the water lilies in the background. Their shoulders are touching, Marinette’s smile reaches her eyes, and for once, Kagami finds that she doesn’t look too bad herself with the other girl’s arm around her shoulder. Her own smile, her real smile, is a little crooked, she had never thought of it before but she sees it now. It should make her feel self-conscious, this isn’t the kind of smile her books and magazines say she should have. It doesn’t. In fact, she finds herself smiling that same smile now. She really is in love, isn’t she? She sets it as her phone’s wallpaper.

**10:07PM**

**Kagami:** _Thank you very much for the pictures. I would love to visit another museum with you someday!_

**10:08PM**

**Marinette:** _yeah, it made me really happy to do it with you… how about the aquarium next saturday, just the two of us again?_

**Kagami:** _I thought there was the brevet des collèges exam coming up right after?_

It isn't what she wants to write, not at all, but she has to play the part of the voice of reason… Right?

To hell with that.

**10:09PM**

**Kagami:** _But if you feel ready, then I would be happy to go with you! And Saturday made me very happy, too_

**Marinette:** _someone was really good and helpful to me and made lots of useful notes for me so i feel like im ready now ;) so, saturday?_

**10:10PM**

**Kagami:** _Saturday it is!_

**Marinette:** _cool! well, gotta go and finish that exploring, so good night! talk to you tomorrow?_

**Kagami:** _Good night to you to! And yes, of course! I think I’d like to discuss what has happened to me today a little more, but I do not want to bother you with my venting_

**10:10PM**

**Marinette:** _dont worry about that, you know you can talk to me freely, even if thats venting. gotta go for real this time! see you!_

Kagami wakes up feeling a little readier to face the rest of the week when she wakes up the next morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir
> 
> Enjoy this last ray of sunshine before… But I won't say more.
> 
> See you next week!


	12. Revelation

“Will you hurry? His day of work will be over soon, and we do not want all our efforts to go to waste now do we?”

Even more annoying than the usual today…

“I am looking for my keys as we speak.”

There, the perfect answer, succinct, neutral, neither a sign of approval nor direct confrontation.

“Well hurry up, then! The car is going to leave without you!”

Nonsense. This isn’t how it works and they both know it.

“I expect you to tell me how it went, now go!”

And so she does. Every so often, Mother has the worst ideas, and her twisted sense of respectability and honour usually ends up wasting everyone’s time, and that includes her daughter’s. Kagami has better things to do than whatever this masquerade is. Playing the role of the personal messenger, going to visit the Agrestes to hand M. Agreste an invitation to dinner tomorrow, it is all quite absurd. Don’t they usually sort these things out over the phone, don’t they send each other e-mails or texts? As far as she is concerned, Tuesday evening went well, sure, there were no romantic gestures from Adrien, no goodbye kiss, but outside of that it was the same as always. As far as she is concerned, it’s been the best meal she has ever shared with the Agrestes. Adrien may have been more subdued than his usual self, but that was to be expected.

On all accounts, everything is going fine, and yet, here she is, stuck in the car, looking out the window every so often, with a stupid envelope that contains an invitation she’s had to rewrite no less than three times because Mother wished to find the best possible wording. The things she does just to avoid being yelled at and to appease her… Adrien has been nothing but friendly, his father’s demeanour has been the same as usual. This is a classic situation of Mother worrying herself for nothing, and forcing her stress on the people around her. If she has to force herself to see things in a positive light, she would say that she gets to go out today, for something other than fencing, which is nice. On the corner of her eye, she can spot the Théâtre du Chatelet… She’ll have reached her destination soon.

“You have reached Place du Chatelet,” the car’s synthetic voice drones.

Now comes the part she hates. She gets out of the vehicle, walks towards the townhouse’s gates as a hot breeze blows, brushing strands of her hair out of her face. The easy thing would be to put the stupid envelope in the mail, this is what any normal person would deem to be enough, and the end result would be the exact same, M. Agreste would get the invitation, appreciate her calligraphy, and everything would be fine. Only, if she were to do that, Mother would find a way to know it, somehow, there is no doubting that, it’s a gift of hers she likes to use quite often. Always a pleasure to know that they can’t trust each other, not even enough to pretend. This will be the sort of thing she’ll talk about with a psychiatrist in ten years, isn’t it?

It is already a little cooler here, standing in the shade of the towering walls. They must be here to protect the residents’ privacy first and foremost, though not only, they seem almost unscalable for a normal human being, especially with the spear-like fences. These look new, though the design doesn’t clash with the walls, perhaps a recent addition to the mansion’s security system? There would be a lot to cover, the place as a whole is immense, and though it certainly is impressive, she can’t help but find it a little sinister too. No one should be living somewhere this big, at least in her mind. It is a citadel as much as it is a residence. Kagami puts on a facade of stoicism, rings the doorbell, all while making sure she is looking straight at the camera, and makes sure her hair stays out of her face. A voice answers almost right away.

“Mlle Tsurugi? Do come in.”

She isn’t very familiar with Mme Sancœur, but her professionalism is something to be commanded. M. Agreste has praised her work before, and Kagami knows all too well that the man rarely compliments anyone at all, and would rather voice his disdain than his approval. On the rare occasions where he has nice things to say about other people, he means every last word of it, at least when it comes to skills. Mme Sancœur is a woman of many talents, an accountant, an assistant, a receptionist, sometimes a driver as well… And Kagami wouldn’t be surprised if she were learn that the woman is trained in martial arts and speaks a dozen languages. She must be paid very well for all that she does, considering how important her role in M. Agreste’s life is. She must have her own room somewhere in the mansion, but neither Adrien nor his father have mentioned it.

The gates open, making her snap out of her train of thoughts, and Kagami heads inside. Every time she has come here, she has had the same observation. This place is not human-sized at all. The townhouse practically exudes power and prestige, just like it was meant to, not a single thing stands out of line, the ground is immaculate, the mosaic is perfect, the glass porch is clean and even the ivy crawling up the wall has been trimmed. Millionaire aesthetes and the things they choose to do with their money… Her steps echo as she walks through the courtyard, up the stairs, and the door unlocks on its own the moment she gets close to it, revealing Mme Sancœur.

When they had first met, the woman had seemed ill, with her sunken cheeks, pallid complexion and dizzy spells. Despite her makeup and command over her body language, her tiredness had soon become obvious for Kagami, even Adrien had noticed and voiced his concern about her wellbeing. Things have gotten better, Mme Sancœur’s sickness, whatever it was, has been cured, she looks healthier now, well-rested, relaxed, even. Not to the point where she would let her hair down and smoke a cigarette, or whatever she does to be relaxed, but her posture seems less forced, for one, her gestures less stiff and painful for her. She has her smartphone in her hand, and a perfectly neutral expression on her face.

“I presume you are here to see M. Agreste. He and his son are in the atelier with his apprentice. If you allow me, I will lead the way.”

One thing has stayed the same, she is just as formal as she is known to be. Kagami nods, crosses the threshold and follows behind. She understands a little better why the older woman is still wearing a turtleneck and a blazer in June. The summer dress Marinette has made her barely keeps her warm. The mansion has never been a particularly warm place, it is all the more noticeable now that spring is behind them. She means it both literally and figuratively, the white marble staircase and pillars would be cool to her touch, she is sure of that, and the general atmosphere of the great hall is that of a mausoleum, not a home. Well, not quite. The family portrait has changed, it is a smiling Adrien and both his parents, M. Agreste looks happier, a little younger. Perhaps Mme Agreste will be returning from her long trip soon? Mme Sancœur stops in front of a closed door.

“He has been informed of your presence,” Mme Sancœur intones. The mask she puts on may not be the same as Adrien’s, or her own, Kagami reflects, it serves a different purpose, but it is there, undeniably. “Please, be quick.”

Mme Sancœur opens the door, motions for her to come in, and so Kagami does just as she’s been enjoined to. She has only been to this room once, when M. Agreste had given her and Mother a grand tour of his property, and though she does recall the checkered tiles and the imitation of the Klimt painting, her memories are otherwise fuzzy. The statues on the side, for instance? The pictures of Adrien? She had no recollection of them being there whatsoever, or that one shelf. It really is an odd place, and though M. Agreste must certainly find a purpose to this room as it is currently organised. It doesn’t seem practical at all, rather, the place feels like a stage, or a film set meant to impress spectators as much as an actual atelier.

Standing next to a dummy with a needle in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other is Marinette, who greets her with a small nod and a wide grin before she turns back to the dress she is… Making? Correcting? Unless she is too tired, Marinette will tell her all about that in a couple of hours. Adrien, who is sitting near the desk, flashes his model smile, but it is uncertainty she sees in his eyes. He is not taking their current arrangement well, but he has done his best to respect it, no flirty messages, in fact no flirting at all, no touches that would be out of place either. He is making a real effort and though she knows she shouldn’t have to feel appreciative of that, even though that should be nothing more than the decent thing to do, she can’t help but be thankful that things are the way they are and not much worse.

M. Agreste is dressed more casually today, and is wearing a bowtie instead of his regular tie, his sleeves are rolled up, he holds a notepad, which he puts down as he turns away from his apprentice and walks towards her. The perfect portrait of the artist at work. He does not seem too annoyed by her presence. They greet each other. Kagami is ready, she knows what to do, she has rehearsed her speech, so much so that she doesn’t hear the words that leave her mouth as she gives M. Agreste the envelope. He takes it with both hands, makes sure to open it delicately. She appreciates the gesture.

“I am flattered,” he says. “Thank you for coming all this way, Mlle Tsurugi, you will tell your mother I am honoured, and that I will be happy to answer to her invitation. I believe we will see you tomorrow evening!”

Not the subtlest cue for her to leave, but better still than “would you get out of here now” and he has every right to tell her to be gone, she is interrupting him in his work after all; Mme Sancœur truly had anticipated her employer’s behaviour. Kagami bids everyone goodbye, Marinette answers a little nervously but warmly, though she does not look up from the dress. She can hardly be blamed for that, the garment seems quite complex, with flounces everywhere, if she were to be clumsy, everything would be ruined. Adrien’s “good evening” is polite and a little empty. One day, things will get better between the two of them, one day she’ll be able to forgive him and he’ll finally apologise and understand.

“Nathalie, if you would please take Mlle Dupain-Cheng’s bag with you on your way downstairs,” M. Agreste’s voice carries from behind her. “If this is fine with you, Mlle Dupain-Cheng?”

“Yes, M. Agreste,” Marinette says. “With the offcuts getting everywhere, it would be wiser.”

“You heard her, Nathalie,” M. Agreste offers a rare smile.

“Of course, M. Agreste,” Mme Sancœur nods. She takes the backpack with her, and waits, perfectly still. “Will there be anything else?”

“Consider sending the cleaners in, say, an hour. You may go, Nathalie. Now, Mlle Dupain-Cheng, let us see your progress. Once we are done with the dress, we will be discussing earrings that would compliment the design.…”

Once again, Kagami follows behind the woman, who walk her all the way to the mansion’s gate and unlocks it for her. There, mission accomplished. It was quick. It’s a relief to be out of here, too, the temperature is much more agreeable. If she could stay outside a little longer and enjoy a stroll in the sunset, she would. Perhaps next year, when Mother is too busy being an accomplished businesswoman as she has told her she would be, when she is a lycée student somewhere in the city. This is going to be one long summer of waiting until things change, but they will change for the best, she just knows it. For now, she types a painstakingly detailed report of what has happened, just to fulfil her promise to Mother.

The drive home is uneventful, Mother has left her a text to inform her that she is having dinner someplace else tonight with the Poulaincks. It is best for the both of them, much better than awkward silence and one-sided yelling matches, Kagami muses. And since it looks like she will be left out more often than not, she will have more time for herself. She brings her laptop with her in the kitchen as the cook processor takes care of her meal. If they are to go to the aquarium this Saturday, she better rehearse a little, just in case Marinette is curious about a fish or two. Is this what she plans on doing, impressing the girl she loves with fish facts? She really needs to learn how to flirt someday.

Tonight, the food tastes almost great, instead of the usual “edible”, the carrot salad with raisins in particular is something she would like to try again. After that, she goes to the bathroom and turns on the radio. She’s in the mood for some classical music; it takes her minutes to find the station she was looking for. Martha François is on air, playing Chopin, if she isn’t mistaken. Perfect. She draws herself a bath, lets herself sink in the hot water and stays there for a good while. Her mind is comfortably blank, and only when it starts getting a little too cold does she reluctantly get out of the bath. Oh, the things she allows herself to do when there is no one to breathe down her neck… And she doesn’t feel too guilty about lazing around, for once.

She is back in her room when her phone buzzes.

**9:17PM**

**Marinette:** _please call me asap we need to talk_

**Marinette:** _make sure youre somewhere safe_

This isn’t a warning about an akuma attack, the message would have been even more succinct and straightforward had it been the case. And that tone… Marinette’s never used it in her messages, not once. But Kagami knows she will have answers as to why that is when she calls. She locks the door to the flat — it could always buy her a few seconds just in case Mother happens to come back earlier than planned, though really she would hear the roar of the Poulaincks’ car as a warning before that — and closes the door to her room, her windows as well. It’s hard to relax with these two messages; she tries her best anyway. She can only imagine how Marinette is feeling, a blend of nervousness and apprehension, probably, because this is what Kagami herself is feeling. She checks the akuma alert app just to be sure, and she gets the answer she expected, absolutely nothing.

Obviously the texts would have been a lot more direct had it been the case. She has the presentiment she knows what this is about, and she hates it. Her finger touches the “Call” icon and tries to hold her breath.

“ _Kagami_.” Marinette sounds tired and relieved and desperate all at once.

“I am here,” Kagami says. “I am here for you. I have made sure no one can listen on us. What is going on?”

“ _I found him_.”

“What do you mean by that?” Kagami frowns. It can’t be it, can it?

“ _I found him, I finally did._ ”

But it is, it very much is.

“This is…” she pauses. “I have no idea what to say.” Great, a relief, terrible, concerning, all these things at once.

“ _I’m having a hard time processing it as well._ ” She can tell that Marinette is smiling weakly, she can hear it in the slight tremor of her voice.

“I thought you were supposed to go exploring later tonight… Are you not supposed to start in about ten minutes? And you’re telling me you found him earlier”

“ _Yeah,_ _I was meant to investigate some more and try to find where his lair was, but I won’t have to, not anymore_ ,” comes Marinette’s answer. “ _I was so stupid, I had him right in front of me all this time, I had almost unmasked him once…_ ”

“What do you mean by that?”

_“We were right next to each other just hours ago. And you were here, too._ ”

No.

It has to be someone else, anyone else but him, it has to be a mistake, how could Marinette be so sure anyway? This is it, a mistake, Marinette is tired, it must have been a flash of the moment revelation, or something like that, only a fake one.

“ _My… Sniffer dog was in my bag, and, well, its sense of smell is foolproof. The townhouse is where the stench is the strongest and the most recent. I… It’s him. I didn’t want it to be him but it’s him_.”

It is as if her room is shrinking around her, as if the walls were getting closer together, as if an invisible hand was squeezing at her throat, it feels as if a thousand ants were crawling up her arms and fingertip, as if her temples were being crushed, something acid is going up her throat. She is going to be sick. For months, she has shared a table with the man who has been terrorising Paris, Mother has called him a friend, he has given her presents, praised her skills as a fencer, she had even started to think that her first impression of him had been incorrect, that he was starting to change for the better. She should have seen the pattern, the lack of attacks on Tuesday evenings and Friday nights, the man’s slight frustration after yet another of his thwarted attempts at… What can he be after, truly? He has no need for the Miraculouses themselves, so why?

His motivations don’t matter, won’t make the revelation any easier to stomach, Gabriel Agreste is Hawk Moth, she has no choice but to accept it. It can only mean that Mme Sancœur is Mayura. The woman who has walked her to the door not hours ago is the one who knocked her unconscious without batting an eye. Her looking better coincides with Mayura making more appearances and Hawk Moth having his hand on the spell book. And she hadn’t suspected a thing. It is all so stupidly obvious now that she gives it more thought, and she should have seen it much earlier. Adrien still has no idea who his father and his personal assistant truly are. Her nausea gets stronger and stronger and she forces herself to sit down on her bed.

“ _Kagami, are you okay?_ ”

“Not really,” Kagami says. Despite everything, Marinette still worries about her first and foremost. Kagami feels ashamed for thinking about herself so much. “Are you alright?”

“ _I had to keep myself from running back to Agreste mansion_.” Way to postpone having to answer the question. “ _But my impulsiveness would get me nowhere, so… No, I’m very much not alright. I need to come up with a plan and I can’t focus on that right now_.”

“Marinette, I…”

“ _Everything’s just a mess, isn’t it? I’m a sorry failure of a hero, my slowness just endangers everyone again._ ”

“I understand you feel like you need to act quickly and end this quickly,” Kagami says. “But you have said it yourself, going in head first would be foolish, rushing might only make things worse, you are right to think that. And please, do not call yourself that, you’re not a failure! Do you know what finding out who he is makes you?”

“ _I… I have no idea._ ”

“A better detective than all the police in the world!”

“ _Well that’s not complicated_ ,” Marinette chuckles. And more seriously, she adds, “ _I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep well tonight. Could you pay me a visit tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow? You know, our last lesson before the brevet des collèges exam, or something like that._ ”

“It might be difficult tomorrow,” Kagami says. “Unlike on Saturday, Mother won’t be busy, and I am having dinner with… I do not know if I will be able to look him in the eye now.”

“ _Neither will I… But you’ll see him tomorrow… Will you be safe around him?_ ”

“I won’t be in any kind of danger, he knows I used to be… You know.” Trying to respect their code, not using words that could give them away just in case is so frustrating. “And he would not target me. Mother won’t tell me the entire story, but she has a deal of some sorts with him…”

“… _and you don’t attack your partner’s daughter_ ,” Marinette finishes. “ _It doesn’t make me any less worried that you’ll be around him._ ”

Kagami has no idea what to answer to that, but hearing that the other girl is concerned about her makes the nausea go away, if only a little.

“You have seen how he acted directly as soon as he identified the old man,” she theorises out loud. “I do believe we are relatively safe.” She hopes so.

“ _Then we can take him by surprise. I…_ ” After that, all Kagami can hear is a garbled mess, faraway voices, her friend and someone else’s and maybe the words ‘yes’ and ‘week’ though she isn’t sure.

“Marinette, is everything alright?” she asks tentatively. No answer. “Marinette?”

“ _Yes, yes, I’m here_ ” Marinette answers. “ _It was just my mum, she wishes I’d go to bed so that I can be well rested for the brevet… Even though it starts on Monday. I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep though._ ”

“I am not sure either,” Kagami mumbles. “Say, would you need some help with your…” What is the code word again? “Your geography homework this Saturday?”

They will have time for their visit at the aquarium some other day.

“ _I…Yeah, definitely,_ ” Marinette says with no hesitation. “ _I’ll need your help. But for now I think I’ll try to follow my mum’s advice… Talk to you tomorrow?_ ”

“Of course,” Kagami smiles. “I… Take care, okay?”

“ _You too!_ ” Marinette whispers. “ _Kagami… Thanks for being here for me._ ”

“Always.” Kagami holds the phone a little closer to her ear.. “Thank you for trusting me like that.”

“ _I don’t know what I’d do without you_.” Marinette’s voice is heavy, and Kagami’s heart skips a beat. “ _Kagami, I… Good night!_ ”

“Sweet dreams,” Kagami says softly. “I will try to go to sleep as well.”

And with these last words, the call ends. But before she can truly go to bed, there are things she needs to take care of. She unlocks the door and makes sure everything is in order in the flat, scribbles something vague in her journal because she needs to put something there anyway, but doing so in here could prove to be risky. Before she forgets, she writes a to-do list on a small note for when she wakes up. It is hard to do much of anything after that, she can’t focus on the documentary from before, no amount of breathing exercises help her close her eyes for more than five minutes. She hears irregular footsteps at some point, Mother’s as she walks to her room (it must be around for midnight for all she knows, perhaps a little later but she is too tired to reach for her phone). She is almost sure Marinette is still awake.

Before she knows it, it’s time for her to drag herself out of bed, have breakfast, and go through her daily occupations. Not easy, with the spitting headache and anxiety nagging at her stomach evert other minute. But she needs to get things done. Which, today, includes, to put it very bluntly, firing her remaining tutors, now that the paperwork for her new school here in Paris has arrived. It really shouldn’t be her job since she wasn’t the one to hire them in the first place, but then again, who is she for arguing with Mother? The redundancy letters have already been prepared, she has even made a mental list of the things she should and should not say to allow it to go well enough. Of course, Mother has not helped her at all for any of these things, as she is busy with a new project these days, which, for a change, isn’t her own daughter.

Speaking of Mother, she is in an excellent mood, her dinner with the Poulainck couple appears to have been a success, she is happy to inform her. She raves about her new investors, just as she had hoped. From what Kagami can understand, Mother’s newfound interested in a domestic use of artificial intelligence would translate in her creating a small company based in France, with collaborators from all around the world… In a near enough future. She had always assumed they had left Japan to ensure her future as a professional fencer… The entire picture might be more complex than that. In France, some people know her name, but very few of them know about her removal from the family company’s board of executives. It has been a little less than a year now… Kagami herself still hasn’t learned the reasons for that.

It’s a slow, busy morning for her, by the end of which she is even more febrile than before. And there are so many things she wishes she could do, the sheet waiting for her on her desk… Unfortunately for her, Mother requires her help with forms and other administrative matters that apparently can’t wait. No break between lunch and going to M. D’Argencourt’s classes today. It’s a little annoying, and obviously not something she can refuse to do. Her mind races all the way through, though only a small part of her takes into account what Mother has to say. She doesn’t snap out of it, not really, not even when she gets in the car, or when she puts her fencing mask on and sets foot on the piste. As far as she knows, it goes unnoticed, her opponents lose to her all the same, the sabre master is satisfied with her as he always is. Marinette sends her a few texts, she sounds tired, busy, and eager to see her tomorrow. That makes two of them.

A soon as she gets back to the flat, she has to take a shower, get dressed, and to get in the car before they are fashionably late. They are having dinner in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in a lavish restaurant with a pretentious name, a menu with ridiculous prices, a great wine list apparently, and a Michelin star. The furniture is mostly Second Empire and apparently authentic, the waiters are dressed like valets, there are musicians playing Schumann, she gathers from the website. The pictures do the place justice, she vaguely observes, before her thoughts return to what matters most. Adrien hasn’t brought a rose, they shake hands, she takes care of pulling her chair on her own, as she has done on Tuesday. He doesn’t look as sad as yesterday, he can meet her eyes a little longer before looking away.

And Hawk Moth is sitting not even a metre away from her, taking a sip from a glass of wine a waiter has handed him without a single care in the world. Kagami tries to avoid looking at him more than is absolutely necessary. If Tuesday night was the best dinner she had ever shared with the Agrestes, tonight’s is easily the worst. She has no one to turn to, on her right Mother is talking to the waiter, facing her is Adrien who is visibly uneasy to be here. This leaves her no other option but silence. The food is great, supposedly, but she can’t fully appreciate the taste, not with that man eating with gusto in front of her.

“You look thoughtful, Mlle Tsurugi,” he observes.

“I had her make her tutors redundant today,” Mother answers in her place. “I believe my daughter rather disliked the experience. It would be pointless to pay them any longer.”

“I see,” M. Agreste strokes his chin. “You will get used to this, Mlle Tsurugi, it was difficult for me as well, at first.”

“She will be discovering the French system this September,” Mother says.

“You know what I think of it,” M. Agreste hums. “But I trust you chose the school with great care! I, for one…”

Kagami doesn’t bother listening to the rest of this conversation, she almost forgets to bid Adrien and his father goodbye as she is about to get in the car. Mother has footed the bill and yet her smirk does not leave her lips as they drive back to Paris. Her bond with the Agrestes has not been damaged after all, the promise of a successful business only adds to her satisfaction, and the three glasses of wine must have helped a little. Mother will sleep it off, and be as demanding as ever in the morning. Kagami waits patiently until she is sure she won’t be interrupted, sits at her desk and takes a pen. This empty sheet won’t fill itself on its own, and Marinette will need it.

Tomorrow will be a busy day, and if she wishes to truly help the girl she loves, if she wants to play a part in keeping Paris safe, she needs this to be perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy, I can't wait for next week's chapter.


	13. Elles

It has to be the heat, or perhaps due to how busy she is, either way, Mother buys her excuse completely. It’s egregious how farfetched it is, and anyone truly paying attention would have called her out on that. How stupid does “my student needs to go to the dentist so I thought it would be a good idea to be there earlier” sound, really? And yet it has worked. Sure, she has to go all the way to Marinette’s house by foot instead of riding on the back of her friend’s bike, since she’ll be coming earlier and hasn’t warned her of that, and there is little shade if at all, which exposes her to the blazing sun and forces her to speed up her pace. It does not discourage her at all. She has no energy to waste complaining anyway. There could be an akuma attack any minute, there were none yesterday, and since they usually occur every other day…

But not today, apparently, or at least not for now, her bracelet’s gem remains a dull green as she walks on. Soon, she can see the Parc des Vosges’s gates, and hear the merry-go-round’s faint music. It’s only a half past two… She is a faster walker than she had expected. The air is hot, the lawn yellowed, and if she were to sit on one of the iron benches, she is almost sure she would regret it right away. It’ll be cooler in Marinette’s room. She hurries out of the square, and as she walks past the bakery, M. Dupain and Mme Cheng wave at her from the other side of the window. They do not look busy at all, this must be the calm part of their day of work… All this time, she has only greeted them with a wave of her own… Since she is early, perhaps she could do things a little differently this once.

_Are you sure this is what you want? This is going to be awkward_ , the least charitable part of her tells her. It makes her slow down for a second, but it is not enough to stop her. She crosses the bakery’s doorstep, and a wave of freshness hits her. Bless whoever invented air conditioning. The entire place seems like a haven of peace and tranquility, an oasis in the middle of the… The heat must have gotten to her. The next thing she knows, Mme Cheng has disappeared from her place behind the counter and is right in front of her with a wide grin on her lips, while M. Dupain gives her another friendly wave of his hand, and Kagami knows she has made the right choice by stopping here.

“Hello, Kagami!” Mme Cheng greets her, and her husband gives another friendly wave, and his impressive frame almost knocks over an intricate pyramid of meringues. He looks almost sheepish for a moment, and Kagami can see some of his daughter’s clumsiness in him. “Marinette told us so much about you!”

“It is nice to meet you, Mme Cheng, M. Dupain,” Kagami can’t help but smile back. “She spoke of me?”

“That she does,” M. Dupain laughs. “Very often, and always very highly!”

“We can’t thank you enough for being her friend,” Mme Cheng says. “And for helping her with her schoolwork! Which, if I’m guessing correctly, is what you’re here for!”

“Y-you are!” Kagami stutters. “And I am.”

“Well then, let’s not postpone your lesson!” M. Dupain nods. “Marinette never hears the doorbell when she works with her earphones on…” He rummages through his pant’s pockets and takes out a bunch of key, with a handmade-looking charm dangling from the key ring. “There!”

Mme Cheng takes a step to the side as he throws the unlikely projectile at Kagami, a nice underhand pitch, easy to catch. “Thank you,” Kagami bows slightly. “Should I return them to you on my way down?”

“No, dear, don’t worry about that,” Mme Cheng shakes her head. “Just leave them on the kitchen table, it will be fine.”

They are just so _nice_ , and she had expected that, of course, Marinette must have gotten her kindness from somewhere, but still… “Have a nice afternoon, M. Dupain, Mme Cheng!” she smiles.

“And you too!” she hears them say in unison.

She is about to walk out of the bakery when M. Dupain’s voice stops her in her tracks. “You should come for dinner one of these days, once Marinette’s exams are over! We would be happy to invite you!”

“It would be an—” honour, Kagami almost says. No, this isn’t about honour, and she shouldn’t use yet another of these ready-made, empty expressions with them. They are Marinette’s parents, they deserve better than that. “I would be happy to have dinner with you one of these days!” She would have to argue with Mother, possibly for days, but it seems barely relevant.

With that, she exits the bakery. The flat is not as cool, she immediately notices as she takes off her shoes on her way up the stairs to unlock the door, though the temperature is still very much bearable. She spots an unplugged fan near the television, greyish and bulky, a relic from another era… It doesn’t feel so weird being there on her own, she knows exactly where to leave her shoes, where to wash her hands and how to open the trapdoor — first pulling it slightly to the left, and only then pushing it up— and if she wished to, she could easily go up there and surprise Marinette… But that would be a childish thing to do. Instead, she sends a quick text and waits on the sofa; not for long, two minutes at most, and then an arm pokes through the trapdoor, motioning for her to come in.

The floor — as it is the first thing Kagami sees as she goes up the stairs, that and Marinette’s legs— is tidy, not a speck of dust in sight. Marinette’s walls and her desk, on the other hand… They aren’t messy per say, but sheets of paper all but cover every surface, and a simple glance is enough to tell her that these are not patterns for whatever fashion project she might have planned, but charts and graphs and printing of various texts, articles, many pictures of the same old building, … she thinks. It isn’t hard to guess what it is. One final step and she is face to face with a slightly tired-looking yet happy Marinette, who welcomes her. She has done her hair differently today, a bun instead of the regular pigtails… It’s not a bad look at all.

“Hi,” Marinette says. “I hope you didn’t melt in the sun… Can I get you a glass of juice or anything? I was about to go downstairs and take my bike to pick you up.”

“I am all good,” Kagami replies. “But thank you for asking! Am I too early?”

“No, of course not!” Marinette’s eyes crinkle ever so slightly as she says these words. “If anything, that means I get to see you longer!”

Kagami can’t help but smile back. Her expression darkens a little when she remembers what she has come here for. “So…” She gestures at the room.

“Yeah, I kinda went overboard with everything, didn’t I?” Marinette chuckles nervously. She sobers up. “But it was necessary, and I feel like I’m getting somewhere at last. All this pining after Adrien and idolising his father ended up being useful after all…”

“I brought one or two things of my own,” Kagami takes her messenger bag off her shoulder. “I did my homework seriously.”

“I’ll walk you through what I’ve done first and then we’ll see how your thing fits in?” Marinette squeezes her shoulder. “So… Exhibition A, the Agreste family and the people who work for them.” She points at a section of the wall, covered with resumés with pictures and other printouts of many kinds.“ It was surprisingly hard to find information on the Agrestes and Mme Sancœur, they tend to be quite secretive. I ruled most of the staff out, the cooks and the cleaning service people, the gardener, the bodyguard…And Mme Agreste since she hasn’t been seen in about a year. The bad news is, they won’t be useful to us, the good news is, they won’t get in our way either, since they work for him but aren’t his allies.”

“Wait, how do you know all these people are working for the Agrestes?” Kagami interjects. “And how did you get so much information on them?”

“I was a creepy stalker, remember?” Marinette winces. “So I kind of remember every time Adrien mentioned them by name. And… Well, back then, I’d spend way too long on the internet searching for everything I could find on them… Yeah, that was… That was pretty awful of me. That’s also how I found out where you lived, I’m… I’m sorry for that, that was wrong and invasive and…”

“I knew that,” Kagami says. At the very least, she suspected it. “It is over now, you said it yourself, this was wrong. But you won’t be doing it again.”

“Of course I won’t,” Marinette nods. “I had forgotten I still had these saved on my computer, I had thrown away everything else, and I’ll get rid of all of this as soon as we don’t need these anymore. Err… so, anyway, we can take Adrien out of the picture as well. I doubt he knows who his dad truly is, otherwise he would have tried to tell me, well, Ladybug, about it. Plus, considering all the times he’s been in harm’s way…Hawk Moth wouldn’t target his own allies, as far as I know. The thing is, I’m not sure Adrien should be aware of his dad’s secret identity, I mean, I could always drop by as Ladybug and warn him, but even that wouldn’t be easy to do.”

And maybe even risky, Kagami can’t help but think. Adrien is smart, certainly wise enough not to do anything rash, he wouldn’t put himself in danger on purpose, that’s for sure. He knows when to get to safety and let heroes do their job, it’s hard to imagine him going against Hawk Moth on his own. He would be the first to recognise his powerlessness. But learning that the ones who have been terrorising Paris for all this time are none other than his own father and his father’s assistant… It has made her feel sick and kept her from sleeping properly for two days now; for Adrien, it could only be worse, so much worse than that, she can only begin to imagine in how much pain he would be… His emotions could easily be turned into a weapon by Hawk Moth. They can’t have their friend be akumatised.

“So we should keep him in the dark,” Kagami whispers. “It does seem like the better option, but I do not like it.”

“Nor do I,” Marinette puts her hand on top of hers. “So… Exhibit B?”

“Exhibit B,” Kagami nods, and they turn towards another part of the wall. “That would be… I am not sure, actually.” These look like timetables, but there are graphs as well.

“Finding out Hawk Moth’s pattern,” Marinette explains. “I got help from the Ladyblog’s, they have an entire section dedicated to theories, and it’s much better than anything I could find on the Lady Bugle. I recreated what an average day for the people living at Agreste mansion could be like. It’s not the most accurate but I did my best.”

“I think I can help you with that, finding M. Agreste’s timetable,” Kagami takes out a sheet from her bag. “There. I did my best to remember all the dates he mentioned in the near future, and his obligations.”

“Wow, really?” Marinette’s eyes widen. “That’s going to make lots of things easier!” Kagami watches in silence as her friend’s eyes travel across the sheet. “So he won’t be there at all on Monday and Tuesday and only returns from Milan the next morning, and then he’s got that whole jazz club thing on Thursday. We can definitely work with that.”

“Do you think you could predict his course of action throughout the next weeks?” Kagami wonders out loud.

“I think _we_ just might,” Marinette says hesitantly. She points at a series of graphs. “He has been attacking the city four times a week on average since the Bourgeois’ anniversary party, mostly in the middle of the day, with only rare occurrences in the morning and in late the evening, though it’s mostly between 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It used to be only twice a week before he got the spell book’s translation, so he must have learned to properly use his Miraculous since then. With what you’ve given me… The only time I could see him attacking from his lair without breaking his pattern would be on Wednesday afternoon. We still need to brush up the details, of course.”

“But if you make the right call, we could catch him red-handed.” Kagami finishes the other girl’s train of thoughts. “And I am guessing this is what you really wanted to see me for.”

“Exhibit C,” Marinette points at the last section of wall cluttered with sheets of all sorts. “Taking everything we know about the Agrestes and their schedules, I tried to come up with a strategy that would ensure that Hawk Moth and Mayura can’t get away… You have that look on your face.”

“What look?” Kagami can’t help but ask.

“That look you had when we played tarot all these months ago, and then again from time to time… You’ve got an ace up your sleeve.”

“I will wait until your exposé is over,” Kagami simply says. Oh, if she’s guessed Marinette’s overall strategy…

“So, my plan is rather straightforward, we get Hawk Moth to transform and stay transformed, fight him and save the day.”

“Only it is not that simple, is it?” Kagami raises an eyebrow.

“Of course not,” Marinette shakes her head. “The way I see it, it raises three problems. First, how to we get Hawk Moth to transform? Well, that one is simple, he’ll try to akumatise someone, but getting him to stay transformed long enough for us to get to him is more complex. Second, how do we defeat him, and Mayura? They used to best us in close combat but I’ve gotten much better at that, and Chat Noir as well; if we take them by surprise, we could stand a chance. I can count of the other kwamis, and I’ve successfully crystallised some of their powers… Well only small charges of them, and it’s really a pain to make these bracelets, but it’ll be worth it.”

“I never asked you before, but how? You have no spell book,” Kagami points out.

“It was a bit of a crude kind of bargain, really,” Marinette shuffles nervously. “I got them what they wanted, and in return some of them made me these crystals with a little of their powers contained in them.”

“And what did they want?” Kagami is almost sure she’ll hate the answer.

“Food, mostly! And… Some of my energy, too… Normally, Tikki uses her own energy to power Ladybug’s transformation, apparently, young Miraculous wearers are too weak to be used as energy sources, which is why Tikki needs to eat every now and then… That’s the way it usually goes, unless the wearer allows the kwami to draw from their human. I’m sure the Guardians had found a way to work around that, because it’s pretty awful.”

“So you let them…” Kagami stops to find the exact expression in French. “You let them suck your lifeblood? That is…”

“I had Tikki make sure nothing could go wrong!” Marinette holds her hands up defensively. “I did get headaches and nosebleeds at first but they stopped really quickly and it’s hardly painful at all now! I’m alright, see, not a scratch!”

This was meant to sound reassuring, but it takes every last bit of Kagami’s self-control not to search for the Miracle box, burn it to the ground and yell at all the kwamis… But that would do no good. She takes a deep breath in, an even deeper breath out. “I… We ought to retrieve the spell book and its translation.”

With a nod of agreement, Marinette walks to her desk, picks up a large, perfectly ordinary-looking dictionary… Only, there is something off about it, it seems surprisingly light when she lifts it up. Is it some kind of prop? Kagami gets the answer to that very quickly when Marinette opens the dictionary and none of the pages move; the young Guardian takes out four bracelets from the unlikely chest. The afternoon sun makes their gems shimmer, one is a light shade of blue, another a vibrant orange, the third a rich red and the last one a subdued yellow. Kagami knows it’s no use trying to guess which corresponds to which kwami, or what they do, Marinette is walking back to her with excitement in her stride.

“Yours activates when something with high velocity rushes in your direction, all on its own,” Marinette points at Kagami’s wrist. “A simple punch or kick, even super-powered, wouldn’t be enough, but say, a bullet or a slash from a particularly fast sword would. Now these bracelets work a little differently. Wearing more than one Miraculous at a time is doable, but only for short periods of time. If we were to fight against Hawk Moth for more than five minutes, I would be toast.”

“So the bracelets are less draining for you since they already contain a bit of power,” Kagami says.

“All I need to to is to break them, which might look hard like that, but it’s pretty easy once I’m transformed,” Marinette explains. “You’ve probably guessed it, I got the yellow one from the bee kwami, it’ll allow me to use a somewhat weakened version of the venom… I won’t grow a stinger per say, but whatever I’d try to touch with my fingertips probably wouldn’t have a great time, is what I’m saying.”

“The orange one lets you create an illusion for a limited amount of time,” Kagami guesses, and Marinette nods at her approvingly. “The red one contains a lightning bolt from Longg? And the last one… I am not quite sure. The snake? I do not know what its power is.”

“I actually got it from the horse kwami. I did give a bracelet imbued with the snake kwami’s time-rewinding power to Chat Noir.”

“You did not choose at random,” Kagami simply states. She has picked familiar powers for the both of them. “Is it the moment when you tell me about your plan as a whole?”

“Exhibit C, part two,” Marinette nods. “It’ll only work if you want in. Which you don’t have to, I could always work out something else if you don’t, and I totally understand, it could be a lot, and if we fail, well…”

“Tell me about your plan and then I will decide,” Kagami offers.

This is the part of the wall covered with pictures of Agreste mansion and, she notices, a very crude sketch of the building. Kagami rummages through her bag again, and hands Marinette the other sheet she has prepared. Geography may not be her forte, but architecture could be. It has been a pain to make, it has taken her hours, trying to match the townhouse’s shape with her recollection of her visits there. Asking Adrien if it is accurate would be awkward, but for all it is worth, she is rather proud of her job. She watches as Marinette’s eyes travel across her map of M. Agreste’s house, with a deepening frown. After a full minute of silence, Kagami decides to open her mouth.

“So… What do you think?”

“I think you may have just made it a lot easier,” Marinette says. “My initial plan was to have you sneak inside Agreste mansion and find the lair, but looking at your map… It’s much more precise than mine. Did M. Agreste give you a grand tour of his property at some point?”

“And Adrien too,” Kagami confirms. “I even got to visit M. Agreste’s bedroom, which was weird, but he absolutely wanted me to see his paintings and statues by Degas. All these darks areas are spaces that are occupied by… Something, which he did not show us. It did not strike me at the time, I was too impressed by what I had just seen, but there is something off about the second and third floors, entire spaces with no way in or out, that are just empty, for some reasons. Some very obvious reasons, now that the bigger picture has been revealed to us.”

“So, you would find the entrance to Hawk Moth’s secret base as Ryuko, and I’d open a portal from where I’d fought the akuma to there.”

“I always wondered, can you not simply creature a portal directly to his lair?” It may be a foolish question, Kagami is all too aware of that, but she knows Marinette will answer with patience.

“I need to have a very clear vision of where the place I’m about to create a portal to looks like, and where it’s located,” Marinette explains. “If I wanted to go to outer space, it wouldn’t be enough, I’d need to be a space nerd and think of really precise coordinates, otherwise the gate would be very unstable. So, that would be your role, finding the nearest location I am familiar with, and a way to get to the lair..”

“And then, we’d face Hawk Moth and Mayura and hopefully defeat them?” Kagami asks.

“I mean, pretty much, yeah,” Marinette rubs the nape of her neck. “But we would have to unmask them somewhere public, for the entire world to see, otherwise they’d get away. They’re the mayor’s friend, and accusing a millionaire… He could easily throw money at the police, and besides, the police… Well, they’re not exactly Ladybug and Chat Noir’s greatest fans, they wouldn’t blindly trust us, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t trust them at all, so it’d have to be a really blatant unmasking. So… Are you in?

As if she could have any doubt.

“I am,” Kagami says with no hesitation. “I did say I would help you any way I could, did I not?”

One thing is absolutely certain: if they succeed, Paris will no longer be standing on the brim of destruction, its inhabitants will no longer have to worry about their personal safety, Marinette wouldn’t have to throw herself at the face of danger any longer. If they succeed, Adrien will need years of therapy, a good dozen people will need to find new jobs, and she has no idea what changes it would bring to her life, or Mother’s, only that their associating with the Agrestes in the past, whatever it may have been, could get Mother in trouble. But she will do her best to stay a good friend to Adrien and to support him, and as for Mother… Well, she isn’t responsible for her parents’ actions, now, is she? And compared with how immense and imminent Hawk Moth’s threat has been, that last point seems almost irrelevant.

“Does Chat Noir know?” she asks after a moment of silence.

“Only partly,” Marinette sighs. “I told him I had a hypothesis, but that it needed to be confirmed. If he knew… He’d rush straight to Agreste mansion and tear it to shreds, I think. He definitely has the skills for that. It’s… It’s not idea, I know, but I don’t want to risk it.”

“He is your partner, is he not?” Kagami frowns. “Do you not trust him?”

“He is really down right now,” Marinette says. “I don’t know what happened to him in his civilian but he’s not alright at all, and if he were to get caught, well… You would tell him if you were in my shoes?”

“I… You know him better than I do,” Kagami concedes. “He would ask you how you found out, and that would only lead to you being forced to reveal your identity, or just being more secretive.”

“It’s not the first time we’ve come after M. Agreste either, only he had akumatised himself to create the perfect alibi,” Marinette recalls. “He would need evidence to believe me, and I can’t see how I could give it to him without partly unmasking myself… And he asked me not to tell him, too. He told me he… Wasn’t in the right mind for that, and that he’d just follow my lead.”

“That sounds… Odd, for Chat Noir,” Kagami remarks. Surprisingly mature, too. “So, he will discover where the lair is when he gets there.”

“I should have pushed a little harder, maybe… But yeah.” Marinette says awkwardly. “Could you turn around for a little while? I’ll get you the Dragon Miraculous. As I found out, Longg loves lychees, so you may wanna get him some.”

“Of course.”

It doesn’t feel like a satisfactory solution, and they both know that. But it’s no use discussing this any further, is it? She can’t make Marinette do things she doesn’t want to, she won’t be able to change Chat Noir’s mind for the simple reason that they haven’t seen each other in months, he has visited Marinette a few times in the past, but not her. The only thing left for her to do is hope that it won’t make things any worse than they already are, and play her part in the plan the best she can. “It’s alright, you can turn around now,” she hears Marinette say. The young Guardian is holding a familiar red and black box in her hand.

“Does this conclude our revisions for the day?” Kagami asks as she takes it. It feels surprisingly heavy for an object this size. “If so, I must say I feel like we have been quite efficient!”

“I mean, there are still details I need to work out, but I’ll do that on my own.” A shy smile forms on Marinette’s lips. “Hey, it’s almost 4 p.m. so we’ve got plenty of time, so I thought, maybe…”

Kagami’s heart hammers in her chest as she watches Marinette fiddle with the bracelets.

“Maybe…?” Kagami continues encouragingly.

“You’re going to think it’s stupid,” Marinette chuckles.

“No I won’t!”

“Really?”

“I promise!”

“Do you want to go out?”

“I-Yes!” Kagami says, with perhaps a little more enthusiasm than she had meant to. Or perhaps the exact amount. In a softer voice, she adds,“yes, I would love to!”

* * *

The heat is much more bearable when they exit the flat and wave at Marinette’s parents, in fact there’s even a light breeze blowing in the trees, and plenty of shade for them to stand in. Staying inside all the afternoon long would have been such a shame. The sidewalks are a little crowded, and from time to time, Kagami’s arm brushes against Marinette’s as she follows her. It’s not a bad feeling at all. Soon, they can see the banks of the Seine, the distant roar of electric guitars makes itself heard every now and then. It must be band practice day at the Couffaine houseboat, and… Someone just broke a string. They both chuckle and keep walking.

They aren’t heading towards the northern side of the city Kagami can’t help but notice. They are exploring the île de la Cité, which, now that she thinks about it, they have never done before. Paris is just that big, isn’t it? She has missed this, just walking next to her. The crowd, not so much. And Marinette knows it too well, she manages to avoid the most touristic streets with every chance she gets, until they come to a stop. Kagami looks up for a second, and sees a sign dangling softly from a wall, which reads “Berthizetto, ice-cream parlour”. A few people stand in a queue, though it seems to be moving quite quickly.

“I thought, after that whole André thing, we could try someplace new, just the two of us,” Marinette says. “I remember what he said, and I remember that you looked uncomfortable in the end, so yeah, somewhere new! André won’t go out of business anyway. we just won’t be part of them.”

“Thank you,” Kagami whispers. Hesitantly, she reaches for Marinette’s hand, and gives it a small squeeze. “Would you, Err, recommend any flavour?”

“Juleka and Rose promised me that everything was great,” Marinette grins. “They were the one to tell me about Berthizetto. And I trust Rose’s talents as an ice-cream taster! So everything, really!”

“I want to try something new, but I rarely have ice-cream,” Kagami frowns. “Not quite a talented taster just yet.”

“Well, we’ll just have to make up for that in the future!” Marinette’s smiles vanishes almost as soon as she speaks the words.

“I would like that.” Kagami takes one step closer to the other girl, and they shoulders almost touch. “My schedule is not very clear yet, but I am fairly certain I am free on Saturday afternoons. After the aquarium, maybe?”

“Oh, it’s true, we said we’d do that!” Marinette’s expression brightens a little. “I have great childhood memories there, my grandma would take me there whenever she stopped in Paris, but I’ve heard it changed quite a bit since then. Aquarium and then ice-cream it is, then! And… It looks like it’s going to be our turn soon!”

They get one cone each, Marinette chooses a single scoop of speculoos ice-cream, while Kagami goes for a raspberry sorbet. They are given small wooden spoons, and that is the perfect excuse for them to try what the other has chosen. Marinette’s taste in ice-cream might be just as good as Rose’s, Kagami decides. She tries to restraint herself to only two spoonfuls. Marinette, on the other hand, steals about a half of her sorbet with no remorse whatsoever. Before she evens knows it, she has finished the cone and finds herself standing on the Pont des Arts. As chance would have it, there is a free bench for them to rest their legs. Kagami decides she should jog there more often.

There is something different about the bridge, since the last time she has been there. The love locks — she has never understood the appeal of being blocked in a relationship with someone but that must have seemed very romantic for some — have been removed, she can’t help but notice. In their place, glass panels that allow them to look at the river; she may never grow tired of that. They stay there, sitting in silence for a little while, watching it flow. Slowly, she feels Marinette scooting a little closer to her, and their arms touch again. Kagami does not move away, instead, she slides her hand underneath Marinette, and holds her breath.

“Kagami, I— I feel like I need to thank you, really, for everything,” Marinette says, her voice low.

“You do not need to thank me for anything,” Kagami turns towards her, and really hopes she doesn’t notice her slight blush. “It is the normal thing to do, helping you with your homework and with the map and… Yeah.”

How eloquent of her.

“No, not just that,” Marinette smiles, and their eyes meet. “Being here with you today, it makes me happy. You make me happy.”

_Oh_.

“So thank you, thank you for staying by my side when I had no idea what to do, thank you for trusting me. Thank you for staying with me a little longer today. That means a lot to me.”

“I should be the one thanking you, really,” Kagami says softly, and she wouldn’t be able to look away now. “For making me feel like I am not alone, for bearing with me despite everything, for thinking I am worthy of your trust; for inviting me to your home, too, and for the suit, and the summer dress, and the ice-cream, and…” She is so bad with words today…

“And?” Marinette repeats, and there’s warmth in the way she says it, and patience.

“What I am trying to say is, I think I finally worked out the courage to tell you, and I feel like this might be my last chance… Marinette, I love you.”

Marinette’s eyes are very bright, their fingers intertwine, and it feels right. Kagami’s back is suddenly less tense. Marinette scoots a little closer and puts her head on Kagami’s shoulder with a content sigh. They watch the Seine in silence, and it is as though the rest of the world around them had stopped existing. “I think… I think I’ve fallen in love with you too,” Marinette whispers, as she straightens up to look at her. “I don’t want this afternoon to end, I don’t want to go home, I don’t want you to leave.”

“I do not want any of that either,” Kagami mumbles.

But it will have to happen, and much sooner than she’d want to, a glance at Marinette’s new wristwatch is all it takes for her to know that. With one last squeeze and a small sigh, Marinette lets go of her hand, and Kagami’s heart stops as she feels the other girl’s fingers on her cheek and watches as her lips open ever so slightly as they get closer and —

“Is this… Is this okay?” Marinette asks, with concern written all over her face. “I don’t wanna force you to do anything you don’t want to, I understand if you’d rather take things slow, or if you don’t want to be in a relationship with me at all. I didn’t even ask you… I’m sorry. So… Would you like me to be your girlfriend? I get that things are complicated with your mum and Adrien and—”

“Yes,” Kagami interrupts, and it’s so hard to keep her voice from shaking, so hard not to wrap her arms around Marinette’s shoulders and hold her close. “Yes, I would love to be with you. And I will tell you what is okay and not okay.”

“Alright, I’ll let you know as well,” Marinette nods. “So…”

“So I quite liked what we were about to do before.” Kagami says. “Do you think we could try again?”

Slowly, she takes Marinette’s hand in hers, and leads it back to her cheek, holding it tenderly. The other girl simply smiles at her, leans in; Kagami lets her eyes close slowly, and tilts her head ever so slightly. Her heart is beating so fast it’s all she can hear. Marinette’s lips meet hers, soft, and she can taste a hint of raspberry. It is perfect. Before she realises she is doing it, she finds herself humming into the kiss, as Marinette’s fingers nests themselves in her hair. If this is a dream, she wishes she’d never wake up. Only, she could not have dreamt any of it. She finds Marinette gazing at her dazedly with a crooked grin as she opens her eyes, and she almost laughs. She barely gets the chance to regain her breath, Marinette’s hug takes her aback. Almost.

And then her phone’s alarm rings.

“We should probably get back,” Marinette winces. “I don’t want you to get in trouble with your mum or anything.”

“I… You are right,” Kagami grumbles. It is the reasonable thing to do. She hates it, but what other choice is there? “Is your bike somewhere near? I can just walk instead, I think I might be closer to my flat.”

“Would you roll your eyes at me if I told you I have parked the bike just at the end of the bridge?” Marinette slowly lets go of her.

“Did you plan all of this?” It’s a silly question, of course she did, Kagami realises.

“You know it,” Marinette says sheepishly. “C’mon, let’s go!”

She gets up and holds up her hand. Kagami takes it, and does not let go. They make it back to the flat in no time, and when Kagami reluctantly unwraps her arms from Marinette’s middle, her friend — no, not _friend_ , _girlfriend_ , she catches herself— is looking at her with sadness and, she realises, fear. They won’t be able to see each other tomorrow, or on Monday and Tuesday since Marinette has her brevet des collèges exam to sit through, and she has no proper excuse to skip Mother’s fencing classes she will have all summer long. The next time they will truly be face to face, they will be up against perhaps the most dangerous individuals in Paris.

“I’ll give you a call tonight,” Marinette promises.

“Not if I call you first,” Kagami replies. “I… Be safe on your way back, alright?”

“I always am,” Marinette retorts.

“See you, then” she says lamely. Marinette’s answer isn’t any better.

Her arms are too busy with holding the bike in place, and she can’t move much. How bothersome… It doesn’t stop Kagami from giving her a quick peck on the lips, that leaves the both of them flustered. Kagami watches Marinette’s shape get smaller and smaller with each pedal stroke. Mother is too busy to acknowledge her presence, and so Kagami heads directly to the bathroom to wash her hands. She takes the small black and red box out of her bag, and glances at her reflection. The necklace is a little heavier than she remembered. A little tighter than she recalled, too, when she puts it on. In a flash of light, the dragon kwami appears on her shoulder, with a knowing look in their eyes.

“We are going to war, are we not?” they say as they hover just above her palm..

“I am afraid so,” Kagami replies. “I wish we had reunited under different circumstances.”

“So do I.” The kwami seems doleful as they add,“Duusu and Nooroo’s wearers must be stopped; and once again, you are the Guardian’s chosen… In more than one way, it would seem.”

“I am,” Kagami nods. It feels right to say. It rings true.

“We will do her proud,” Longg says.

“I hope so,” Kagami whispers.

“Hesitation does not suit you,” the kwami roars. “There is no hoping. We _will_ do her proud.”

“We will,” Kagami repeats, and she believes the words this time. “I believe I should get reacquainted with you. What would you think of a nightly flight later this evening? We will have to be discreet, but I believe it could be useful for the both of us.”

“I would like nothing more. It has been too long.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> Sorry this chapter is late, real life has been busy and I didn't want to rush this… I hope the wait was worth it.


	14. Inferno (1)

This once, she does not have to come up with excuses, at all. What could she say anyway? That her student needs a last minute lesson? Mother has read on the brevet des collèges and knows Adrien’s schedule, she knows that the exams at Françoise Dupont take place in the morning and that students tend to use the afternoon to cool down. Today, she doesn’t have to make anything up at all. No, instead of that, over breakfast, Mother informs her that her day will be busy, that she is not to be disturbed under any circumstances. Something about bank meetings and investors at La Défense, on the outskirts of Paris, Kagami doesn’t catch the details, not entirely at least, the Poulaincks will be there and some others but the rest is blurry in her mind. And it isn’t all that relevant to her anyway.

What matters is that Mother will be away from the city centre, away from Agreste mansion, and will stay away from lunchtime to suppertime at the very least. If things go accordingly to plan, she won’t even know her daughter hasn’t stayed at home like she had promised, she will have much more important things to worry about. For now, Mother is pacing back and forth in front of the door, making wide gestures and mouthing the speech she has spent days writing on her own, or rather, dictating to her phone out loud, and Kagami could definitely speak the words alongside Mother if she tried. But it’s difficult, so difficult, to focus on anything at all.

In twenty three minutes, Marinette will be out of her school, fifteen more and she will be back to her house, and then, everything will be in place. A window of about six hours during which she’ll be waiting for Hawk Moth to make the first move. It makes her chest feel hollow and her stomach churn with apprehension. She barely listens when Mother tells her what food she is to have for lunch, wishes her a good day, closes the door behind her and lets herself collapse on her bed as soon as she sees the car drive away. How is she supposed to be hungry, let alone eat, with what is about to go down? She can’t fight her battle on an empty stomach. She sends Marinette a text, forces the sautéed potatoes and carrots down her throat, and flops back on her bed again, with her eyes glued to her phone. The battery is getting low, she plugs it to its charger. She can’t have it fail her now.

**1:01PM**

**Marinette:** _sorry i took so long to answer! maths went decently, thanks for asking. how was your lunch?_

**Kagami:** _Please, do not apologise for that, you were busy, I understand!! I am glad it went well, lunch was forgettable, unfortunately_

**1:02PM**

**Marinette:** _robot-made food, was it?_

**Kagami:** _It is not bad per say, it fact it is perfectly serviceable, only I wish I could choose what I eat and cook it myself_

**Marinette:** _i wish i could have lunch with you_

**1:03PM**

**Kagami:** _I wish I could be sitting next to you too_

**1:05PM**

**Kagami:** _Is the code word still the same?_

**Marinette:** _yeah_

**Marinette:** _i should get ready soon, try to cool down_

**1:06PM**

**Kagami:** _See you soon?_

**Marinette:** _i guess so. i love you_

**1:07PM**

**Kagami:** _I love you too_

With that last text, she puts down the phone and forces herself to get up and do something, anything useful, breathing exercises would be a good start to help her feel less crushed by everything. She sits cross-legged on the floor and does her best to focus on the simple acts of inhaling and exhaling… Until she needs to go to the bathroom. She does not take her phone with her, she has enabled sound notifications, she could hear that annoying ringing from the other side of the flat. No new notifications when she checks it again. She takes out the hand-drawn map of Agreste mansion, and studies it for the hundredth time. She really can’t figure the place out, how M. Agreste could access his secret room. Or is it rooms? It is the same blank space on her map, on the second and third floors, with no way in or out.

The corresponding space on the outside would seem lived in for an outside eye, the one way mirror film on the windows could only give the sense that the owners care about their privacy, and the bull’s eye is fairly innocuous. She has tried turning into air and going through these potential entrances, with no success. The windows are sealed shut, the bull’s eye might be able to be opened, and yet impossible to get through. It is an airtight, watertight lair, and if she didn’t believe in Marinette’s strategy, she would call it impregnable. Only, it can’t be, M. Agreste must have some kind of route to reach his secret fortress, and as far as they know, the Horse kwami is the only one with the power to teleport its wearer. This will be her part of the plan’s first phase. But for it to work, he needs to be in his lair and to be too busy watching his akuma’s battle against Paris’ heroes to notice an intruder sneaking up on him and Mayura.

Things are too still, and she isn’t doing anything productive. It is a quarter past two when she decides she needs to keep herself busy with other things than thought experiments that can only get her so far. She puts the Dragon necklace on, grabs a handful of lychees for Longg to eat and warms up as she usually does before her workout sessions while the kwami gobbles the fruit whole, including the skin and seed. The transformation should last longer without become dangerous for either of them, and considering the fact that the objects she might be holding, unless they are magical in nature, do not transform with her, it truly is their only option. The bracelet imbued with the Turtle kwami’s power won’t float in the air and then fall down once she turns herself into water, but a bag of lychees, on the other hand…

And then her phone all but blares, she all but pounces on it. A notification from the akuma alert app, a purple butterfly sighted near… She doesn’t even read the end of the sentence, she can’t afford to waste a single second. She grabs her phone and the paper bag she has prepared, dashes for the door, slips on her running shoes and hurries down the stairs. The sun is glaring at her as she sprints past cars and hurries down pedestrian crossings right before the traffic light goes red. She does not let her breathing gets shorter, does not stop to look at her phone, now is not the moment to get a side stitch, she knows exactly when and where to turn and barely needs to think about it, she has been on this exact same path while in the car time and time again… The Jardin des Tuileries is the size of a pinpoint in her back, and soon the Louvre as well, the Théâtre du Chatelet’s shape gets bigger and bigger and she comes to a stop.

Twelve minutes. It has taken her exactly twelve minutes to get to the Place du Chatelet. She has gotten plenty more messages from the app, one informing her that a live-stream is ongoing on the Ladyblog. Paris will have its heroes pitted again a kind of giant snake that has coiled itself around the tower, and while all eyes are on them, she will have all the time she needs to play her role undisturbed. Marinette hasn’t arrived yet, but she shouldn’t be long. Kagami opens the paper bag, takes out a bottle of water and sips from it. Longg’s head pokes out of the bag with sparks of electricity coming from their horns. It has been quite a feast for them, they are almost overflowing with energy.

“It is high time we put our talents to good use,” they hum. “Are you ready?”

“Our surroundings need to be safer,” Kagami replies. “ I jut stopped to catch my breath. Could you pass me the cereal bar? Thank you.”

Once more, she knows exactly where to go, Marinette has mapped the entire area for her, including her favourite hiding spots to transform. And indeed, there is a very conveniently-placed news stand, about fifty metres away from the mansion, away from the mansion’s surveillance cameras, right next to the metro station which has been temporarily closed for renovations. She won’t be making a spectacular entrance, quite the contrary in fact. She drops the paper bag, the empty bottle and wrapper in the closest bin and readies herself. She speaks the words, turns herself into wind and starts moving forward. She passes through the iron gates effortlessly, and finds an open window right next to the front door.

This is child’s play. As soon as she has made sure the coast is clear, she reverts to her original state and taps on her sword with the tip of her finger. Immediately, the live-stream from earlier is projected from the water, storm and wind symbol on the hilt, in the way the holograms from that one space opera film would appear. Things are proceeding accordingly to plan so far, Ladybug has arrived at last to save the day. And now, she needs to do things methodically, starting with the ground floor. The kitchen staff is currently working someplace else, in fact no one but Adrien, M. Agreste, Mayura and the family’s bodyguard should be here. Still, there’s no such thing as “too careful”. She turns herself into wind and tries to find an entrance anywhere. Nothing, only perfectly clean vents, and nothing more.

The woodwork looks newer in the room she decides to call “the living room”, less weathered around the impressive fireplace. Only… No, that does not line up with that empty space on her map at all. The Agrestes are rich, mostly thanks to Mme Agreste’s family, spending money on renovating the mansion every now and then, even though the place is far from falling into disrepair, sounds exactly like the sorts of thing France’s most sought-after fashion designer would do. Not the living room, then. The walls leading to the other rooms, however… It would fit, they are much too wide. Marinette would figure out these sorts of things much quicker than her, for sure. A sort of lift that would get M. Agreste underground, a sort of passageway and another lift up? Or perhaps stairs? That would be needlessly complicated, but this is Hawk Moth she is talking about. He has built a literal fortress in his house that even his own son is unaware of, so why stop there?

There ought to be an entrance on the first floor. She detests the sudden wave of nausea when she goes from her normal shape to one of her elemental forms, and it’s even worse from element to element. It is her only tool if she doesn’t want to be noticed, unfortunately; she has yet to master the Miraculous’ powers well enough to hover in the air with precision. She mouths “wind dragon” and floats upstairs. At least she isn’t making any noise when she slips under the door to M. Agreste’s atelier, Adrien must be in his room playing the piano… She can’t have him see her. She remains immaterial and stays close to the ground, until… Found it. No wonder she hadn’t seen it at first, the ground is almost the exact same as it is everywhere else near the pseudo-Klimt Émilie Agreste. It’s fortunate that she is using her sense of touch, and that she can feel every little friction as her shape glides near the floor.

She can make out a very slight depression in the black marble floor in the shape of a circle, and minuscule gaps, maybe micrometers deep, that do not feel the same as the other irregularities. There is more air underneath, an empty space, definitely wide enough to fit one person, perhaps two if they were to stand very close to one another. Now she only needs to get inside that lift shaft, and find a way to open it for Ladybug and Chat Noir. If not for her currently being a vague floating consciousness, this would be the moment she gets a splitting headache and dizzy spells. It’s a painstaking process, getting through those ridiculously small apertures, and from an outside eye, it wouldn’t look like anything at all. Which is perfect for what she is supposed to do.

When she turns back to her physical form, her vision is blurry, it feels as though she has been run over by the métro, and to make things even worse, she almost slips down the lift shaft. She spreads her arms and legs apart as much as she can to get a good grip and to stop slipping any further. It is almost entirely dark down there, and having reptile eyes helps a lot. This thing goes deep, below the mansion, she wagers. Her intuition was correct. It really isn’t the most efficient way to access a secret lair, but again, practicality has no place here. Enough thinking, she needs to get moving. The climb back up is surprisingly easy, especially compared with the hardships from earlier. The small claws on her hands and feet certainly help. She is mere centimetres from the “ceiling” when she spots the opening mechanism. It is deactivated for the moment, just like the LED panels used to light the lift, but with a bit of power, that would certainly change.

It takes a couple of tries to aim the spark of electricity correctly, but she gets there and sure enough, the “ceiling” opens. Before it can close itself again, Ryuko slams her sword in all the electronics she can reach. There, this thing won’t be moving anytime soon… Or even again. Ladybug and Chat Noir’s fight against the giant snake — a puppet, she understands— and its charmer is going fairly well, which means the second phase of the plan can begin. All that technology crammed in her sword… She sends Ladybug a message, a single word, “atelier”, and waits, her eyes glued to the projection. The video footage is very clear, the sound not so much but she can hear cheers and gasps of surprise as two silhouettes appear next to Paris’ heroes, one green, the other orange with a sort of tail. The snake tamer freezes, and Hawk Moth’s voice booms.

“ _Fools! Do you truly believe bringing in more heroes will change the outcome of this battle? Victory will be mine! I will take the Miraculouses off your corpses if I must!_ ”

Really? “Victory will be mine?” Ryuko rolls her eyes. He would be so much more intimidating if he knew when to keep quiet, and instead he has chosen to give the worst villain speeches she has ever heard. Hawk Moth falls right in Ladybug’s trap, the snake charmer hops on their unlikely mount’s head. The gigantic beast gives a metallic-sounding hiss, opens its mouth, revealing rows of teeth, large enough to be captured on camera. The snake hurls itself at the four heroes and crashes in a cloud of dust and rubble. This is it, the beginning of the plan’s third phase. Ryuko gets back on her feet, picks up the sword. The video feed gets impossibly bright with a pinkish light, stutters for a good two seconds, as a bluish glowing circle forms in the middle of the atelier, facing Mme Agreste’s portrait.

In the blink of an eye, Ladybug’s shape emerges from the portal, her partner follows immediately. Neither of them seem hurt or exhausted. Good. Phase three can begin. Ryuko readies herself to jump back in the lift shaft, while Ladybug prepares her yo-yo, but Chat Noir does not follow. She freezes. Did Adrien run all the way from his room to here, were they too noisy? She exchanges a glance with Ladybug, braces herself and turns around at the same time as the other girl… But all they see is Chat Noir. Ryuko’s stomach sinks. The boy’s eyes are locked on the painting, his pupils have shrunk to slits and his hands are shaking, and his lips are moving silently, always forming the same words: “please, no.”

“Chat Noir, is… Is everything alright?” Ladybug asks. She puts her hand on the boy’s shoulder, and that seems to snap him out of his daze.

“Is it truly Gabriel Agreste?” His voice is weak. “I thought he was just that rich fashion designer who got… But it was a trick, wasn’t it? He’d akumatise himself on purpose? Of course he’d do that. He was right under my nose this whole time and I never thought he could… Who would create a secret entrance like that but…” Shakily, he buries his face in his hands, and starts muttering to himself.

“Chat Noir, come with us,” Ryuko tries. “We cannot win without you, and we cannot stop so close to our goal.” This is wrong, he is in no state to fight, and she’s asking him to—

“You’re right, you’re right,” he says, in a neutral voice she feels like she has heard before in someone else’s mouth. “We ‘re wasting time… We gotta continue, or else he’ll just get away with it again and again until he gets what he wants. Let’s go. Lead the way, Ladybug.”

Ryuko exchanges a brief, concerned look with Ladybug, who nods at her, failing to hide her worry, before she leaps inside the opening. Chat Noir mirrors the gesture, and she can’t help but notice that his hands are still shaking when he slides down the lift shaft with his claws scratching against the wall to slow down the fall. She sees them both land successfully and move out of the way. Her turn. No more wind powers for today, not if she can help it. If they don’t defeat Hawk Moth, at least he’ll have a hard time explaining the gaping hole and unusable lift in his atelier, and that might just get him in enough trouble to get arrested. As if he could get in trouble at all with a friend like Mayor Bourgeois and a fortune like his. She lands with a thud and tears her sword off the metallic wall.

They must be below the mansion’s basement. The lift, a simple platform, leads to a tunnel carved in the rock. It doesn’t look new by any means, but she’ll have all the time in the world for architectural observations another day, and with Ladybug’s yo-yo acting as a torch, there isn’t much she can see. She runs behind Chat Noir, until she almost bumps into his back. He and Ladybug have stopped. They have reached a kind of vast, empty room with imposing steel reinforcements in the middle of which a very narrow ladder stands, going up. There are no other paths they can take, and Ladybug is moving again, Chat Noir tailing along. Ryuko follows. Steel is replaced with concrete as they make their way up, the temperature gets warmer, the air drier. They must be back above ground level, travelling through walls once more. No wonder this is such a cramped, claustrophobic space, should it be any bigger, it would be much harder to conceal.

It’s a fairly short climb which comes to an abrupt end when she reaches a small platform, jutting out of a dark, domed wall. This is it, then. A few more steps and she could be in Hawk Moth’s lair. He probably wasn’t expecting guests, ever, otherwise he would have built a much bigger platform, there is barely big enough for the three of them to stand next to each other without bumping shoulders. The gap between the house’s regular walls and the fortress is just wide enough to allow for the thick, heavy-looking door standing in front of them to open. As chance would have it, slightly ajar, not enough for her to see what is inside without opening it —Ladybug is better placed for that— but definitely enough to hear Hawk Moth’s voice, and Mayura’s as well.

“ _… footage is practically worthless, even that fool Chamack was not able to get anything remotely workable!”_ Oh, Hawk Moth, always so dramatic, always thwarted. For the last time today. _“Using these idiot’s eyes is a strain on my powers, and making sure that your little puppet would follow my charmer’s order was already draining enough as it was!_ ”

“ _I am sorry, sir, I…_ ”

“ _No, no, I should have foreseen this, we tried to bite more than we could chew, I got carried away. The Fox and Turtle making a reappearance… I did not expect that. And of course the footage is terrible, which means we cannot get a closer look at their faces and see if she has chosen new wearers, and if this is the case, this might disprove your theory entirely. Could you play the Chat Noir feed again?_ ”

“ _Of course._ ”

“ _Stop it here. See the bracelet on his wrist? Somehow, it blinks out of existence just as he grabs Ladybug by the hand and jumps out of the snake way the first time and almost find . Could I have all the sources for the end of the fight now?_ ”

“ _A second, please… There you have it. Should I slow it down?”_

“ _Yes. Is it not perplexing? They never disappear like that when they defeat our champions. Could that mean someone wearing another Miraculous was there too, only concealed? The spell book never mentions these sorts of powers from these kwamis._ ”

“ _They could have purified the butterfly while jumping in the hole Apophis had created?_ ”

“ _I see. That could be, yes, and still… This is all very disconcerting._ ”

The illusion truly did fool them. Ladybug glances at her and then at Chat Noir, and though the boy barely looks any better, she points at the entrance. The two bracelets still on her wrist, those with the red and yellow gems, give a weak glow. She holds up three fingers with a determined nod. Time for the fourth phase of the plan. This is it, then. She breathes in deeply and takes a step forward. Three… She moves closer to the door, pressing her shoulder against it. This thing is heavy but not unmovable, and with her suit’s powers, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Two… Ladybug readies herself, while Chat Noir’s ears go flat.

“ _Should I cancel Saint Germain tomorrow?_ ”

One.

She pushes as hard as she can, and the door slams against with a loud _clang_.

“I’m afraid you won’t have the chance to do that, Mme Sancœur,” Ladybug says nonchalantly as she walks inside.

Ryuko enters right after, and she had to say, she was not expecting the lair to be this dark. The only sources of light are the many white butterflies flying around lazily, the bull’s eye — so it was sealed for a good reason— and, all around it, a collection of flat screens arranged to form a sort of circle, with metal bars to create a butterfly shape. With the view from outside displayed on these, the illusion of a large glass window would be very convincing, and knowing the man’s taste for grandiose, it must be exactly what it looks like. Instead, what she sees is a series of still frames from a series of video, all different angles of the attack from earlier. In the middle of it all stands a very shocked Hawk Moth, and Mayura who seems just as stunned.

“Now, there are two ways this can go, M. Agreste, Mme Sancœur,” Ladybug says confidently. “Either you admit your defeat and hand me the spell book and the Miraculouses, or I’ll have to take them from you by force.”

“Oh, do we use each other’s civilian names, then?” Mayura quirks an eyebrow. “Bravo, you’ve got us unmasked, I suppose you must be proud of yourselves.”

“Hello, Mlle Tsurugi.” Hawk Moth stares at her directly. His partner’s remark must have snapped him out of his “Are you not supposed to be home? My, if your mother knew.” He turns to Ladybug. “My assistant has come up with this theory. See, the spell book you are so desperate to get your hands on stipulates that a wearer’s secret identity can only be found out by other kwamis, and I presume one of yours found us out, or when the wearer reveals themselves in a way or another. Now, a few months ago… But perhaps you’d want to tell the entire story yourself, Nathalie?”

“I would be happy to,” Mayura replies. “When we got rid of the old Guardian, we unmasked most of Paris’ heroes, and it soon became apparent to me that some things connected them. They were all young, out of them went to the same school, most were in the same class, and the only outliers were connected to it in a way or another. Now, what could possibly connect Chloé Bourgeois, Alya Césaire, Max Kanté, Kim Chiến Lê, Nino Lahiffe, Luka Couffaine and you, Mlle Tsurugi? It couldn’t be a place, no, the only reason you sometimes go to Françoise Dupont is fencing, as for M. Couffaine, his sister is a student there as well.”

No, no this is all wrong, rule number four, letting your adversary have full power over time, letting them decide when to fight and when to stay on guard is a step towards defeat. And yet, Ryuko can’t move.

“I looked into this further and soon, the answer to my problem was crystal clear! I came up with a hypothesis that was all worth the headaches it caused me. This kwami magic truly is potent. After that… Well, all we needed was to have a closer look at my suspect to test. Nothing too risky or so I thought, though in hindsight I must say I underestimated you. Still, you were not careful enough to hide your Miraculous as your civilian self. M. Agreste insisted your earrings were replicas, and was about reluctant about canceling the internship I had suggested he offered you to prove my theory correct. You claimed we had lost, yes? Tell me, Mlle Dupain-Cheng, how does it feel to be so wrong?”

It is as though time had slowed down enough for her to feel the bile in her throat as Mayura’s expression turns from mild amusement to a ferocious smile. Hawk Moth’s eyes are full of a violent joy. Chat Noir has fallen to his knees, his head in his hands. Ladybug has let her guard down entirely.

“Initiate maximum protection mode,” Hawk Moth yells. The lair’s door closes itself on its own, with the sound of it locking itself, the screens flash red with the word “Emergency” as the bull’s eye seems to shrink and disappear entirely. They are all stuck here, and the towering man does not seem concerned about it, quite the opposite in fact.

“Your identity barely matters anymore, or any of your careful scheming,” he laughs. “I had hoped one of my akumas would defeat you and give me your Miraculouses, and instead you came here to deliver them to me yourself! Such a shame, you truly were a promising intern. And you really thought you were smart for a moment. What are you going to tell us next, that you would speak to the judges once we did as you said so that they’d alleviate our sentences? That you have prepared e-mails that will send themselves automatically tomorrow unless you cancel them, with enough material to reveal who we are to the world? The moment I get my hands on your earrings, it won’t matter, you fool!”

If not for Chat Noir’s short, laboured breaths, the lair is dead silent. Everything is at a standstill, Ladybug’s face is unreadable, until…

“You two did not truly listen to what I have just said, did you?” She has never sounded so determined, so sure of herself. “Do I need to repeat myself? I never spoke about making your sentences any lighter. What I said was you could give me your Miraculouses and make it easy for all of us, or I would take them from you, I am giving you the choice!”

That has certainly struck a nerve, Hawk Moth’s complexion reddens noticeably. “You insolent little—”

Ryuko’s grip on her sabre tightens, and her feet shift into an en garde position.

“Now, let’s not raise our voices,” Mayura shakes her head debonairly. “She is being capricious, but so are most children. If she so badly wants to go with a fight, let us give her one!”

“You seem awfully sure of yourself, Mme Sancœur,” Ryuko interjects.

“I defeated you once,” Mayura says. “I will be happy to do so again, as many times as it takes until you understand you never stood a chance against us, Mlle Tsurugi.”

Ryuko’s feet shift into an en garde pose, and next to her, Ladybug spins her yo-yo. Hawk Moth unsheathes his swordstick, but not without glancing at Chat Noir with something akin to curiosity.

“I would like to see you try,” Ryuko can’t help the smirk that stretches on her lips as she faces Mayura.

Before any of them can say She lunges at her opponent, her sword held high for a downwards slash, and just as expected, her opponent is ready to intercept her attack. In a shower of sparks, Ryuko’s blade clashes against the hand fan. It is no secret to either of them that Mayura is the strongest of them two. So when her grasp on her weapon seems to weaken, this is the only cue Ryuko needs to jump backwards, just in time to avoid a punch to the throat. On the other side of the room, Hawk Moth isn’t so good at dodging, if his pained grunts are anything to go by. She’ll have to try something else, then. She lunges again, leaving herself entirely exposed as she feints. Mayura is a good fighter, but she is neither a fencer nor properly trained against magical enemies. The way she is preparing herself for a kick with her right leg, for instance, is a silly mistake.

“Water dragon,” Ryuko mutters.

Mayura’s foot hits with a loud splashing noise as droplets of water shoot in every direction. How foolish. Ryuko’s body reforms in mid-air, just to Mayura’s left with her sword high above her head. She brings it down, and watches as the older woman makes her second mistake by parrying the blow in the most foolish way. Mayura’s left fist closes on the blade. Too slow. Too clumsy. Ryuko lets go of the hilt and lands right in front of her enemy. With all her might, she slams the side of her hand against the older woman’s ribcage, and continues with an uppercut and a kick to her stomach. The sword clatters to the ground as Mayura stumbles away, trying to regain her breath and her equilibrium Her smirk is gone, replaced with rage. Ryuko summons her sabre back to her hand, returns to an en garde position, readying herself as she creates more distance between the two of them.

A black blur passes just in front of her before she can lunge at Mayura again, and lands with a loud thud. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen Chat Noir look as vulnerable as he does now. The boy can barely stand on his own two feet, she can’t be sure with the light, but she thinks there’s something red dripping from his nose, his baton is still in his belt. He’s not even trying to fight, is he? Ladybug’s attacks are well-timed and do their job of keeping Hawk Moth at bay, only nothing about her stance is adequate for being on the offensive, she wastes precious opportunities by dodging blows she could easily parry, only… No, she couldn’t, she is not equipped for that and Hawk Moth isn’t fighting to incapacitate her.

“I am not done with you yet!” Mayura roars. Oh, she has regained her breathing, and looks even more full of hatred than before, if that is even possible. She grabs a fistful of feathers from her hand fan, which start flaring up menacingly. “You wanna play swords just like mum? Let us see how your fancy swordsmanship will get you out of this one!”

“Mayura, don’t!” Hawk Moth bellows. “The lair…”

But Mayura isn’t listening to him as she throws the handful of white feathers up in the air. Instead of falling to the floor, they float, and Ryuko watches as their quills turning to point at her. There are too many of them for her to count. She should be impressed, only… This is all too much. Mayura’s Achilles heel is pride, and her wounded ego is making her show off her powers in the flashiest way. Which is perfectly understandable, in Ryuko. She too would be furious if someone half her age ridiculed her after a great triumphant tirade, she too would try to do something grand. Only, Mayura’s projectiles won’t be able to hit an immaterial target.

For someone so skilled at investigating superheroes and their secret identities, she is terrible at learning their powers, or perhaps she is still thinking of her as a Tomoe Tsurugi’s daughter. Ryuko can’t help but wonder how it feels to be so wrong. Mayura snaps her fingers, bringing her back to reality, and all at once, the magical bullets hiss through the air. Ryuko mutters under her breath. She cannot see in her wind form, but she can tell it is a loud spectacle, perhaps enough of a distraction for Ladybug to gain the upper hand on Hawk Moth, or at least to get a few seconds of respite. As the projectiles blow up against the steel wall, leaving a sizeable hole in it, Ryuko is already on the other side of the room.

“The wires!” Ladybug yells at her the moment she reappears. “Catch!”

Ryuko’s reflexes work faster than her mind and her hands close against the small object Ladybug has thrown at her. A bracelet with a red gem. Longg’s power? Why? She already has the Miraculous itself, She isn’t sure she understands. And then she notices the parks coming from where Mayura’s little firepower display has landed. The impact has left some of the the wiring exposed, and a strong enough electricity charge would certainly shake things up, at the very least open the door. She runs for it, barely dodges out of Mayura’s spin kick and crushes the little red gem between her thumb and index as she jabs her fingers into the hole. The bracelet simply melts away, it's the only word that comes to her mind as she watches it disappear from her palm. The sudden surge of power throws her back the door does unlock, but she knows she’s made a terrible mistake when the screens start flickering before they explode as a red light fills the lair.

“ _Missile quick l-launch sequ-ence ini-nitiated_ ,” a cold, synthetic voice stutters. “ _T minus te-ten seconds… Nine…_ ”

Shit.

She gets back to her feet, — “ _Se-even_ ”— runs to grab Chat Noir by the shoulder — “ _Four” —_ and Ladybug joins her as they try to cross the d—

“ _One_.”

The world around her is swallowed by fire and noise and then Ryuko knows no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you next week!


	15. Inferno (2)

Over her fifteen years of existence, Kagami has had all the time she needed to consider her existence, and what would come after that. When she was five and spent most of her days living with her grandparents outside of fencing practice, she remembers she used to believe that her soul would go to the land of the dead and rest there. When she was eight or nine, she still believed that, although with less enthusiasm than before. One year later, she had given up on the idea of an afterlife altogether, and was terribly ashamed to have ever given credence to something like that in the first place. When people died, their corpses would rot or be cremated and that was all there was to it, no reincarnation, no dwelling places for souls, it just stopped, roll the curtains, the end. She might have been wrong about that last part, because her entire body is aching, her head is throbbing and her ears are ringing, which only makes the headache worse, and she can’t get her eyes to—

Wait.

If she can feel her body hurt, if she can sense the cold, hard surface on which she is resting her back… Does that mean… She tries to open her eyes again and lets out a small groan. She is alive alright. The sun is too bright for this to be the land of the dead, paradise or hell or wherever her soul could possibly end up, and she is getting a strong sense of déjà vu from this entire situation. Only the previous time hadn’t involved… All of this. Missiles. She can hardly believe M. Agreste somehow got away with having actual missiles just above his atelier, just metres away from his own bedroom. If she can see the sky, she can only imagine the state of the lair, or what is left of it. They could have done without the explosions. Her ribs aren’t broken, or her legs, she knows what that is like, she’d be having a much harder time forming semi coherent thoughts like she is now. The scaly sensation she gets when she tries to clench her fist is enough for her to understand that she is still transformed.

Marinette. Is Marinette… She forces her to eyes to open again. It is easier to do this once, the pain is ebbing away much faster than she had expected. She turns her head slightly to the left. Her vision is getting less blurry by the second, and the red shape she can make out slowly turns into Ladybug. She isn’t awake yet, but at least she is breathing evenly, and the few wounds she is sporting look more like cuts from a sword than whatever damage shrapnel does. Chat Noir has been knocked unconscious, but outside of his bleeding nose, he doesn’t seem more hurt than before. It’s all a lot to take in all at once, and she isn’t sure she could manage to stand up just yet. She lets her head fall back.

On the bright side of things, Marinette is alive, Chat Noir is alive, she herself is alive, and they are all still transformed. She’s still got all ten of her fingers too, which is nice. And yet and there is something off, as though a slight weight had been removed from her left forearm, as if something is now missing. She lifts her it slightly to get a closer look at it.and all she sees is a perfectly regular forearm and an equally normal wrist that looks just like it has always looked whenever she is Ryuko. In fact, there doesn’t seem to be a single bruise on her entire body. She really did manage to go against Mayura without getting hit once, didn’t she?

And for some reason, the three of them also have avoided being reduced to piles of ashes considering all that has happened. Funnily enough, they are lying on a very clean and perfectly circular section of the lair, completely free of debris and dying flames. It clicks and Ryuko understand the sudden lightness on her wrist. The bracelet is simply gone. With a long, shaky breath, she lets her arm go limp again. She had never thought it’d be used like that, but she’s glad it still activated. She’ll get the Turtle kwami whatever food they like best if she ever makes it out of it alive, no matter how rare or expensive. Sitting herself up shouldn’t feel like such a huge victory but it undeniably does. She pushes herself and attempts to get back on her feet. “Attempts” being the key word.

Her weapon really shouldn’t be used as a walking stick, and as a fencer, seeing anyone else use their sword that way would infuriate her to no ends, but it simply can’t be helped, she can only see so much from her current position, and if her enemies have made it out alive… Accidentally, she activates the sword’s holographic projection thing, whatever it’s called, she’ll try finding the exact name some other day when she doesn’t get nearly killed by actual missiles meant to obliterate tanks and who knows what else. She hasn’t exactly kept an eye on the clock since she’s entered Agreste mansion, all she can do is make wild guesses, but she’d say she hasn’t been out for more than three minutes. She can barely recognise her surroundings.

That’s not quite right. All the buildings and streets around the mansion are still the same, except for some light damage on some of the roofs, and, from what she can tell, barely any rubble on the road and sidewalks. The lair, on the other hand, is almost completely gone. The steel walls are in a sorry state, some have melted, forming weird puddles that are still smoking, some have been bent out of shape, the ceiling has collapsed on itself, there is a large layer of debris of all sorts everywhere that turns into mounds on some places. The old stone facade has not help up, neither has the roof or the garden, or the surrounding wall. From what little she can see of Adrien’s room, the window-protecting mechanism has worked. As far as she can tell, the mansion is only truly destroyed from the second floor up so hopefully he is fine, or at least not severely injured. Which doesn’t sound any comforting when she puts it like that. Hawk Moth and Mayura are nowhere to be found but a handful of white butterflies are flying lazily. There is a small crowd gathered across the mansion, and she can hear voices getting louder.

“We really did a number on his house, didn’t we? I can only use the my healing wave once per transformation, so I don’t think I’ll be able to fix any of this… But you seem alright!”

Ryuko turns to see Ladybug giving her a weak smile that turns into a grimace when the girl begins to move her legs. Immediately, Ryuko rushes to help, stretches out her hand, Ladybug takes it, her knees don’t buckle and she finds her balance right away. One of them is clearly used to getting back up after getting punched down, Ryuko can’t help but note. Make it two, from the corner of her eyes, she sees Chat Noir stirring awake as well. While he seems less hazed than earlier, but there’s stiffness in his shoulders, a slight shakiness in his movements, his pupils are still mere slits. He is up by the time Ladybug lets go of Ryuko’s hand.

“The bracelet?” he asks hoarsely, stumbling to join them. “ Is it what saved us?”

So he’s purposefully avoiding the topic of their secret identities, then. He needs time to process it all. She can hardly blame him for that. “I guess Wayzz shielded us,” Ryuko plays along. Ladybug nods in agreement.

“I shouldn’t have used the gem with Sass’ powers during the akuma fight,” Chat Noir moans. “We could have avoided all of this.”

“We can’t dwell on what could have been,” Ladybug says as calmly as she can. “What matters is that we’re all fine and that no bystanders have been hurt. I think.”

“Mayura and Hawk Moth…” Ryuko frowns. “Do you think they made it?”

“I genuinely have no idea.” Ladybug walks towards the white butterflies. “I think Nooroo, the butterfly kwami, did, otherwise these wouldn’t be there.”

“It’s not like there’s a shortage of piles of rubble,” Chat Noir points out. “They may be stuck underneath one of these. Come on. We can’t have them arrested if we can’t find them!”

He’s not wrong. There’s something frantic about the way he starts digging, how he sinks his claws into the broken tiles and bricks and dust and just throws away everything his hand closes on. The layer of debris is knee-deep at its shallowest. It would take them hours to get through it. Ryuko and Ladybug exchange a glance and help him. Soon, they are covered in dust, and the sound of firefighter sirens starts getting closer. There is no fire, as far as Ryuko is aware, but it makes sense. The police is also on its way. Great. They are going to be framed for terrorism, aren’t they? And since it’s the mayor’s friend who just had his house destroyed… Are they going to become public enemies? That would be rich. But also unsurprising. Perhaps if she turned herself into air, she could be able to move the rubble better?

And then the floor starts rumbling, and a hulking shape emerges from the ruins in a cloud of dust. A pair of massing purple wings spread, and an ear-piercing screech rings out. So, that answers their question, doesn’t it? The cloud dissipates and standing to the impressive sentimonster are Mayura and Hawk Moth, covered in scraps and wounds. Mayura is missing a large part of her coattails, and blood is dripping from her cheek and calf, Hawk Moth’s left arm is bent at an odd angle, only one of his eyes is open, and his sword stick’s blade is chipped. It’s a wonder they’re able to stand up at all. She has never seen Hawk Moth this furious, or Mayura this apprehensive.

“This is not over!” Hawk Moth howls. Angry red blotches mar his skin “You think you’ve beaten me? You—”

“Well, pretty much, yeah?” Ladybug shrugs. “I mean, your lair is gone, it looks like lots of TV journalists and people with smartphones are on the the other side of the street filming us, your son must be wondering about what’s going on and you and your colleague definitely need to go to the nearest hospital, so the smart thing to do would be to give me your Miraculouses and await a fair trial.”

“Oh, the wounds are nothing serious,” he lies through her teeth. “If you think that would hold me back from—”

“Do we truly have to show you again that you two, fully grown adults, are no match against a handful of teenagers?” Ryuko cuts in. “I would rather not have to, but if you insist, who am I to deny you? I am only a child after all.”

“We’re going to the hideout, now,” Mayura hisses. “It will be days before they find us and by then we’ll have won.”

“Do you really want to postpone our reunion any further?” Hawk Moth takes her wrist. “If we try again, just this once, the wait could be over, everything could return to the way it used to be. Is that not what you wanted too?”

“I…” Mayura looks away. “Of course I want us to be reunited with her.”

“Nothing can justify terrorising an entire city and its inhabitants for months,” Ladybug interjects. “Whatever you think you’ll get by taking our Miraculouses, you just won’t get it.”

“How would you know? You are a guardian without a spell book, barely more than a kid in possession of an artefact you don’t even understand!” Hawk Moth snarls. “The moment I get my hand on your earrings and the black cat Miraculous, it’ll be as though those events never happened! I’ll take back all the suffering, all the pain, and you won’t even know what happened because the world will be right again!”

“You are risking people’s lives because of an old legend!” Ladybug yells.

“Mayura, you know what to do,” Hawk Moth says harshly.

“Of course,” Mayura nods.

The gigantic sentimonsters take a step forwards and whatever is left of the structure preventing the lair from crushing M. Agreste’s atelier under its weight groans. The floor won’t hold for much longer. Ryuko’s stance shifts into an en garde position. If they are to fight on this uneven battlefield, they need to be quick. Ladybug readies her yo-yo as well, Chat Noir slowly takes out his baton, and Hawk Moth’s grin widens as one of his butterflies lands on his palm. With one last war-like cry, the sentimonster flaps its wings. The sheer strength of the gust of wind almost sends Ryuko tumbling backwards and falling off the house, and if not for her jamming her sword into the floor and holding on for dear life, she’d be sent flying away. Debris flies past her, and she has to contort her body to avoid getting hit by the bigger pieces. From the corner of her eye, she sees that Chat Noir has adopted a strategy similar to hers, using his claws as an anchoring point, while Ladybug’s yo-yo serves as a grappling hook.

Here goes any hope of sorting things out somewhat peacefully, Ryuko thinks darkly. It’s not like Ladybug hasn’t tried. When the miniature storm stops, Hawk Moth is already right in front of Chat Noir, brandishing his sword while Mayura is lunging at Ladybug and for a second, Ryuko almost believes she could help either of them. An imposing shadow is looming above her. _Shit_. She only barely jumps out of the way before the sentimonster comes crashing down, slamming its gigantic stinger where she was standing only a second before. This is a poor choice, but then again, Mayura’s creations have no mind of their own the way akumas are, they are only extensions of the people they are attached to. And Hawk Moth is too busy with Chat Noir to give the creature precise orders.

The monster —or maybe is it the man controlling it?— has understood its mistake, and unsticks itself the best it can, flaps its wings with renewed force until is finally frees its stinger. It’s already too late, the platform on which they are standing, what little is remaining of the lair, has started leaning towards the open street, slowly at first and then not so slowly anymore. Debris starts sliding off and falls into the garden while the frightened cries of bystanders who run away from the crumbling mansion gets more distant. The street down below appears to be empty. At least, this is the one thing they won’t have to worry about.

Mayura retreats and grabs onto one of the sentimonster’s legs, Hawk Moth does the same, the trio takes off in a cloud of dust. Asking if they should go after them is a pointless question. Ryuko launches herself into the air, Chat Noir turns his baton into a pole, Ladybug throws her yo-yo as she leaps into the air, and only narrowly misses the beast. It flaps its wings more frantically, trying to pick up speed. The steel platform slides off Agreste mansion entirely, crashing with a loud thud just as Ryuko lands on a rooftop next to the two other heroes. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where the sentimonster is going, knowing Hawk Moth’s taste for drama and grandiose settings. They’re going to the Champ de Mars again, right in front of the Eiffel Tower. They follow the Seine’s banks, jumping from rooftop to rooftop.

So of course, because things aren’t complicated enough already, Mayura’s feather-bullets make a return before any of them can anticipate them, and this time Ryuko is too busy running to transform. Chat Noir and Ladybug are much better at dodging than she is, but why dodge when you can parry? Out in the open, Mayura’s aim is surprisingly good, and even when she misses her shot, she still manages to make everything harder than it needs to be, forcing them to run in zig-zags rather than in a straight line, having them bound at the last second to avoid stepping on broken slates and searing hot tin roofing. They use chimney stacks as cover, skip over television antennas and almost manage to land a hit on the sentimonster.

“Hey, you big turkey, got a shortage of feathers?” Chat Noir heckles. “Grandpa, too lazy to take a walk like everybody else? Maybe now would be a good time to put you in a retirement house!” There’s still a hint of nervousness in his voice, too much energy in it for it to be entirely genuine, but his trying at all… This is a bit more like the superhero they know.

With a whizz, one of the magical feather grazes Ryuko’s shoulder, leaving a singeing sensation there, and if this isn’t the sign she should stop analysing and focus more on running, she doesn’t know what is. The Eiffel Tower’s shape gets bigger and bigger by the second, but Chat Noir’s taunt proves to be right, Mayura’s attacks do get rarer, more poorly aimed with each shot. And then there are no more roofs to jump on, only trees. They have reached the Jardins du Trocadero, she can spot the Palais de Chaillot and its masssive pillars, and hear the sound of the fountain and the chatter of tourists, there are even more on the other side of the water. All the more for people for Hawk Moth to turn into his accomplices.

“They’re going to cross the Pont d’Iéna,” Ladybug yells as they hop from tree to tree. “We can’t let them get a higher ground than what they’ve already got, the last time Hawk Moth and that sentimonster were on the Eiffel Tower…” There are too many people on the bridge, Ryuko thinks darkly as they look down. And that fact won’t stop Mayura from trying to fire more of her projectiles. “Ryuko, you should—”

“I should create a bubble to protect everyone ,” she nods.

Ladybug is always a step ahead of everything, and as they run along the bridge, her eyes as constantly moving, searching for Ryuko can only guess what. Shaping, and more so maintaining that water shield is draining, she barely has the time to appreciate the way it looks the way some tourists are, she can hear the snaps of cameras. It’s working, and if not for the way all sounds coming from the outside is drowned, she is fairly certain she would hear Mayura and Hawk Moth cursing with rage. They are getting too close to the Eiffel Tower, they have almost crossed the bridge entirely, they are too late. Only, out of the three heroes, she is the only one to seem particularly concerned about that.

“Chat Noir!” Ladybug calls. “Give Ryuko your baton! Ryuko… Think you could take them down a peg, maybe blind them a little?”

“It has a button on the side to expand it,” Chat Noir adds helpfully as he throws it at her. “Nice catch! So, it retracts automatically a couple of seconds after it’s been expanded, press it three times and it should get to its maximum length! It definitely won’t be enough but you’ll have a good jump-start!”

That seems too easy when he puts it that way. Then again, she’s a fast learner and it’s their only chance, though she really doesn’t understand why she couldn’t just use her powers and do all of that without the baton. It must be part of a bigger plan. Ryuko snaps her finger and the water barrier breaks apart slowly but she doesn’t stop running. The sentimonster, on the other hand, is simply hovering above the bridge, no longer advancing, and focusing all of its fire power on Chat Noir and Ladybug, whose yo-yo spins deflect the magical bullets, if only slightly. The beast is perfectly stationary. It is right where she needs it to be. She sheathes her sabre, jams the staff-sized baton into the ground with as much strength as she can, holds onto the flat top of its other end with as much strength as she can, and clicks the conveniently-placed button three times.

The effect is immediate, and frankly nauseating. She shoots upwards, picking up some momentum as she ascends. The wind whips her face, and the ground gets less and less detailed almost too quickly for her to process. She raises her head, which takes more effort than she could have guessed. She hasn’t been spotted yet, she is right in the sentimonster and its passengers’ blind spot. A mere second before it reaches its size limit, she feels the baton’s mechanism starting to activate itself. Time to get off this ride. She pushes herself above the staff with all her might and just as gravity is about to reclaim its rights over her…

“Wind dragon.”

Her vision may be gone, but she can sense the vibrations coming from the gigantic wings as the sentimonster does it best to keep itself in the same position, and Mayura’s magical projectiles piercing through the air. She floats and readies herself to revert to her original state and transform. Not too close to them, not too far either, just high enough so that she’ll have the time to do all of that without breaking her neck on the asphalt immediately after that. She senses an odd vibration coming from below. She doesn’t question it for now. She has found the perfect position. If she had teeth right now, she’d grit them. Three… Two… One…

“Lightning dragon!”

The air around her gets impossibly hot as the bolt travels from her body to the ground with a loud roar. It’s a blinding flash of light, and it being right in the villains’ line of sight is exactly what she wanted out of it. Ryuko is about to retransform when a blur of black and red passes right in front of her, followed by Chat Noir’s weapon. She holds on to it, letting herself slide down and watches Ladybug use the flat top of the baton as a springboard and launch herself at the dazed sentimonster. For a second, Ladybug’s hand glows a sickly yellow, then Ryuko is too busy trying to make a safe landing to keep gaping at what is happening above her head. Mayura’s hand fan clatters to the ground and breaks before before Ryuko’s feet touch the ground. It isn’t the only thing dropping down, the sentimonster’s wings have stopped flapping and the monster statrs plummeting.

Next to it, so does Ladybug.

A cold sweat runs down Ryuko’s back and her stomach sinks There’s no way she can run and catch her, or Chat Noir. Before she can even rationalise it, she reaches out and in the blink of an eye, the Seine rises to form a growing mound at the end of the Pont d’Iéna. Without a sound, Ladybug breaks the water’s surface feet first, and Ryuko barely records the sentimonster crashing down on the the asphalt, only about fifty metres from where she is standing. She puts down her hands and the water flows back to the river, leaving a small crowd of drenched tourists she hadn’t noticed before spluttering on the bridge’s now wet sidewalks, and Ladybug, standing up with a new cut across her arm and shaky legs. Ryuko runs to her side immediately and wraps her arms around her.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Ladybug hums soothingly as she returns the embrace.

“The next time you plan on doing freefall, tell me about it first, okay,” Ryuko says into the crook of Ladybug’s neck.

“You’d try to stop me,” Ladybug chuckles. In a softer tone, she adds, “I’m sorry I scared you like that. I promise I won’t come up with plans like that anymore.”

A loud puffing noise followed by the frightened screams of bystanders makes them both jump and end the hug precipitately, Ryuko’s hand closes around her sword’s hilt, but all they see is a cloud of dark blue smoke where the sentimonster had crashed, and in its place a small crater. Hawk Moth is lying on his stomach, while Mayura’s transformation is wearing off. People have already gotten to a safe distance from the point of impact, some have taken out their phones to film and whispers intensify when a streak of dyed red hair falls on the side of the woman’s face. Her body is stiff, unnaturally so, she seems to be frothing. Outside of that she doesn’t seem to have more wounds than was the case earlier, as far as Ryuko can tell. Chat Noir’s pupils shrink again, if only for a moment.

The peacock kwami is right next to Mme Sancœur, barely moving, with thin yellow veins pulsing over their diminutive shape. Someone gives her a bottle of water, which she gratefully accepts and chugs down. Ladybug asks for anyone to call an ambulance. The chatter gets louder, more confused, fragments Ryuko can’t piece together, too many voices all at once saying “…know her?”, “…so scary…” “over now?, “… looks like an alien…” and while she and Ladybug are doing their best to answer all these questions, Chat Noir is breathing in and out deeply. His hands do not shake when he grabs his baton to put it back in his belt. And then Hawk Moth straightens up briskly, his bloodshot eyes glaring at the trio of heroes.

“Everyone, get back immediately!” Ladybug yells. “Ryuko!”

She is already forming a water barrier between them and the civilians. Immediately, the sounds from outside the bubble are

“You!” Hawk Moth rasps as he pulls himself up, his broken left arm falling uselessly to his side as he does so. He’s always been a thin, tall man but he just seems gaunt now, almost a walking corpse with his suit in tatters, his wounds and his pallid skin. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”

“Look,” Ladybug shakes her head. “I asked you to give us your Miraculous to avoid a fight and needless destruction, and over the last forty-five minutes, I have done so two times, and I feel like I’m going to have to repeat myself. I said you could either surrender peacefully or we’d take the butterfly brooch from you by force to prevent you from hurting anyone with its powers ever again. Earlier, I said you should go to the hospital, you look even worse now, so really…”

And yet, Hawk Moth takes a step forward with his swordstick, and pops the spherical top of the pommel open. A small pair of glowing white wings unfold themselves, and the butterfly lazily lands on the man’s palm.

“This won’t work,” Ryuko says. “My wall of water has stopped Miracle Queen’s wasps, I doubt your akuma will be able to cross the barrier.”

“And you think I don’t know that?” Hawk Moth smirks. “Why bother with civilians when I have the perfect person right here?” He closes his fist, and when his fingers unfold again, the butterfly has turned a dark purple. “Fly away, my little akuma, and make this troubled soul my new ally!”

The akuma flutters quickly, too quickly for Ladybug’s yo-yo to capture, towards Chat Noir, enters his baton which darkens. Immediately, shining outlines appear in front of the boy’s face. Ryuko’s hand wrap around the hilt of her sword and waits. Chat Noir is an experienced fighter, more so than she’ll ever be, but if she managed to get just one good hit at the baton… The glowing butterfly mask dims for a split second, and Hawk Moth’s smirks turns into a frown. Purple spreads from the baton, and wherever it comes in contact with Chat Noir’s suit, the leathery fabric turns white. And then, all at once, the suit returns to its original colour and the purple substance goes back inside the darkened baton.

“No,” Chat Noir simply utters. “I won’t fight for you, no matter what you can offer me.”

“I don’t…” Hawk Moth mumbles. “Why isn’t that working? I could give you anything, I could…”

“No,” Chat Noir repeats a little louder. “The only thing I want right now is for you to be stopped, to de-transform and give us your Miraculous. The only one causing me pain is you.”

“It’s all the three of you say! Well I’ll try someone else, then!” Hawk Moth whips his head to the right and stares at Ladybug. “I’ll just have to defeat you the regular way, pierce the bubble and pick someone in the crowd, it should be easy! Akuma, come back!”

“Cataclysm.” Chat Noir simply whispers, and his hand is engulfed in darkness. The moment the purplish butterfly gets out of his baton, he closes his fist around it before can get the change to fly back to its owner. “You are not going anywhere.”

“Then neither are you three!”

With a roar, Hawk Moth lunges at Ladybug with his good arm stretched, the tip of his sword stick shaking slightly. His speed almost takes them aback. He is no fencer. Ryuko jumps in front of the other girl, unsheathes her sabre: in a flick of her wrist, she beats the swordstick entirely out of line and continues with a thrust of her own. For a man this tall and this injured, he is surprisingly nimble. Not nimble enough to dodge both her attack and Chat Noir’s baton that comes hitting him right in his good shoulder, throwing him off balance. Ladybug snatches him by his lapel, preventing him from falling on his back. He looks genuinely frightened now.

“You can’t do that,” he screams, trying in vain to get back to his feet. “Do you know who I am? I am a creator, a visionary, I—”

“Oh I know exactly what kind of person you are now, Fa—,” Chat Noir tries to cut in.

“Nonsense,” Hawk Moth spits. “You are all children, you wouldn’t understand.”

“For the last time, M. Agreste, give us your Miraculous!” Ryuko commands.

“Some guardian you are,” the man laughs at the girl holding him. “You truly know nothing! Nooroo, metamorpho—”

He never gets to finish his sentence. Ladybug grabs the brooch standing in the middle of his chest, grabs it and pulls with all her might. With a bright burst of purple light, Hawk Moth’s figure melts away, replaced with the bloodied, unconscious body of Gabriel Agreste. Chat Noir’s eyes are glassy as he and Ladybug place the man’s body on the ground, careful not to hit his head or to damage his bad arm any further. Carefully, Ladybug picks up the Peacock brooch from Mme Sancœur’s chest, and opens her yo-yo to put both jewels inside. Ryuko is frozen in place. Chat Noir called this man… No, she must have misheard, this is all, she decides.

“Are they both still breathing?” She inquires.

“M. Agreste is,” Chat Noir confirms. There. He didn’t call him “Father” earlier, or anything like that. “Could you check on Mme Sancœur, Ryuko?”

“On it,” she nods.“Yes, she seems to be alright, at least on that side of things.”

“Good.” Chat Noir gets back to his feet.

“Adrien?” Ladybug says hesitantly. “Is that really you?”

“Looks like out of all of us, I’ve managed to keep my identity a secret for the longest time, but now the cat’s out of the bag, huh?” Chat Noir forces a grin on his lips as he turns around “Still, I should get a prize for that. I really hoped I could have gotten away with it.”

This is too much.

“We’ve been in the same class for a year and I didn’t even…” Ladybug runs a hand through her hair nervously. “What even were the odds!”

“Right?” Chat Noir flashes a smile that would better fit in a fashion magazine. “How did maths go this morning?”

“This is all…” Ladybug doesn’t end her sentence “I don’t even know what to say. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you who he was ahead of time.”

“That’s fine,” Chat Noir shakes his head. “I did ask you not to tell me, didn’t I? And I think… I think if you had told me earlier, he’d have gotten to me. As for the rest… I don’t know, I guess I’m going to make psychiatrists very rich for the next couple of years? It still feels so unreal to me. Maybe I’ll get up in the morning and feel just fine, or maybe I won’t? Anyway, I should get going.”

“Do you have a place to stay tonight?” Ryuko gets closer to the two of them.

“I can always ask my parents to take out one of the extra mattresses we’ve got,” Ladybug offers.

“It’s really kind of you to offer, Marinette, Kagami,” he says after some time. “I think I’ll ask Nino, plus, it’ll give us an excuse to work on the history exam, and Chris will be really happy to see me. Yes, I’ll do that, give Nino a call, but first…” A blue light filters through the water dome. “First I need to make sure Father and Nathalie are taken care of.”

“Will you be okay?” Ladybug can’t help but ask.

“I don’t know,” the boy answers truthfully. “But I’ll try to be. I’ll… Text you two tonight to tell you how it went.”

Ryuko calls off the water barrier, and the world around them comes alive again. It’s hard to drown all that noise, to keep it from overwhelming her, the ambulances, the police and their loud sirens following after, the cameras clicking, the chatter from the crowd, even her own words when she talks to one of the nurses to accept the kit he hands her for her singed shoulder. There is one noise louder than them all to her ears, a regular beeping sound. Ladybug’s earrings are blinking, so is Chat Noir’s Miraculous. It is her own Miraculous she’s been hearing. Longg must have taken it all on themselves to make the transformation as long as possible.

“We’ll leave the rest to you,” Ladybug says to one of the nurses, who wheels the stretcher with Mme Sancoeur on it away.

“We should go,” Ryuko whispers in her ear. “There are people in uniforms walking towards us and I think they may have some questions.”

“I’ve seen them too,” Ladybug nods as she takes a step back. “But I still need to take back the spell book and Master Fu’s tablet. Can’t get there with these people getting in our way.”

“It’s probably inside the painting in the atelier,” Chat Noir says. “But I don’t think I’ll be able to come with you. I’ll create a distraction for you two to get away.”

And he is very good at these. Chat Noir does a spectacular somersault over one of the the police van, a couple of cartwheels and expands his baton, starts scaling the Eiffel Tower before he seemingly vanishes. People are too busy looking up, there are too many sources of light all at once, camera flashes, even in broad daylight, emergency vehicle lighting, to notice Ryuko and Ladybug running away in the opposite direction, reverting their transformations just next to one of the imposing police vans — at least they have one use— and a pair of perfectly normal-looking girls reappearing on the other side of the car a few seconds later. They walk back to the middle of the crowd for a little while and stay until it starts scattering when the ambulances drive away, followed closely by the police and a crowd of journalist on bikes.

Just as the two of them are reuniting and Kagami is about to open her mouth to ask her if they should get going, a buzzing noise, Marinette’s phone, interrupts her. Fair enough. She decides to mirror her girlfriend’s gesture and check her notifications as well. To her own surprise, she has received quite a few, mostly from the akuma alert app and from the Ladyblog, two messages from Alya, one to warn her of the attack at Montparnasse Tower, the other asking her where Marinette is since she isn’t answering her texts, one from M. D’Argencourt begging her to stay safe. Mother has a “no phone during business” policy and considering the fact that she isn’t supposed to be back home before the evening, receiving no message from her is almost reassuring. She hasn’t been caught in any of this. Kagami doesn’t look at the Ladyblog, in fact she disables the notifications for that app altogether.

“Is your shoulder alright?” Marinette asks her right away.

“I…” Kagami lifts the collar of her shirt and glances at where the burn mark should be. “My injury appears to be gone? Or healed? Is it supposed to do that?”

“The cuts Hawk Moth gave me have closed as well,” Marinette mumbles as she inspects her arm. “I might have a few battle scars, but… I guess kwamis can heal minor wounds? Tikki’s power did manage to fix my broken leg once I’d purified that one akuma, but… We should hit the road, and I think I know just the way to get there faster.”

It must be sheer luck but for once, the Vélib’ bicycle sharing system does not let them down. Those bikes are nothing like Marinette’s, it has no rear rack, it looks too large, with a rather ugly green mudguard… They each take one and start pedalling. And to think that not twenty minutes ago, they were taking the same road in the opposite direction, a dozen metres above the ground. As simple human beings, it’s almost infuriating how slow they are compared with their superhero counterparts, even when they are riding bikes. Marinette is gripping on the handlebars a little too forcefully, and Kagami can’t help but notice that she is too.

Agreste mansion’s gates have been forced open to allow the fire engines to park in the courtyard. The front facade doesn’t seem all that damaged, the windows are still curtained by metal panels. The place did undergo a complete lockdown protocol before the whole missile disaster, Kagami recalls. So perhaps the atelier hasn’t been swallowed by the flames, perhaps the room isn’t entirely in ruins. Chances are, it is. Firefighters have just cut a hole through the metal sheet covering the main entrance. Longg and Tikki poke their heads out of Marinette’s backpack, their mouths full of lychee and biscuit crumbs respectively. They look quite a bit paler than they usually do, especially Tikki, and yet the kwami of creation manages to smile.

Being a superhero is like carrying a guest pass everywhere you go, the firefighters let them through without asking questions. Cracks have formed on the marble staircase and its assorted pillars, the impressive painting of the three Agrestes has fallen off the wall, the lamps hanging from the ceiling have all been shattered. All things considered, it could have been much worse. They sidestep large hoses, Ryuko tries her best to help direct the jets of water. The smoke on the first floor is suffocating, nothing a water bubble can’t solve, at least partly. Ryuko steps in carefully. When they reach the atelier, Ladybug reaches for her hand and gives it a small squeeze. Ryuko squeezes back.

It is worse than either of them could have anticipated. The door has been blown out of its hinges, the weird statues have been seemingly vaporised and only their pedestals remain, M. Agreste’s touchscreen is hanging from a wire, rendered entirely unusable. The entrance hole to the passage leading to the lair is still open. These are the only things that make the room recognisable. The facade, windows and ceiling are simply gone, some of the steel beams that were supporting the lair are still visible, funnily enough. The floor is cluttered with debris of all kinds, plaster, wood and chunks of stone. No painting of Adrien’s mother anywhere to be seen, but a few metres from where it originally stood is a metallic box, about the length of that portrait. A safe, perhaps?

They exchange a glance. Only one way to find out. They dig the ground around it and sure enough, when Ryuko grabs at the bottom of the box, it has does not feel like metal at all With a grunt, they flip the box on its side and sure enough, they are faced with what is left of Émilie Agreste’s painted silhouette. The wooden panel is broken, a good half of it is charred, revealing a sort of mechanism underneath it. It hasn’t survived the explosions, they find out. It slides open on its own, without either of them having to do anything. Inside the safe is a large book, and right next to it a tablet. Neither objects appear to have suffered. With infinite care, Ladybug takes them out.

“I think this is it,” she whispers to herself. She turns to Ryuko. “Is there anything you still wanna do here?”

“We should go,” Ryuko offers. And quickly, if they can.

“I guess you’re right,” Ladybug straightens up, the spell book and tablet under her arm. “Say, I know you were supposed to stay home all afternoon long, but… I don’t want to be alone. We could just do nothing for a little while.”

“I wouldn't leave you on your own after… Everything. I am coming home, well, to your home, with you,” Ryuko says. “And sitting on your chaise longue doing nothing would be perfect.”

Ladybug holds on to her hand when they come down the stairs. Somehow, she has the feeling they won’t be able to rest for long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not over! Not yet!
> 
> I'll be away next week, so you'll have to wait until August to find out what happens next… I hope you'll stick around until the very end!


	16. Petrichor

Having breakfast alone in the kitchen while staring blankly at a phone isn’t the best way to start the day, and Kagami knows that all too well. Despite her awareness of that, it is exactly what she is doing as she waits for her slices of stale baguette to pop out of the toaster. Their next grocery bag doesn’t come until tomorrow evening, she’ll have to wait until Thursday for bread that won’t even be fresh by then. This is just stupid, it’s not like bakeries are ever closed here, and Mother could simply allow her to buy bread like regular Parisians do — “only lowly people do that and we are nothing like them” — but that would lead to hour-long arguments. As if she’d have the courage to put herself through that.

As if she’d even get the chance to do that. They may share the same flat, which they mostly haven’t left in the last five days, they share meals together yet outside of these moments they barely see each other at all. It’s awful, not being allowed outdoors and skipping fencing practice. She has done her best to keep herself in shape with the training regimen Mother had come up with during the snowy and rainy days. It is repetitive, and not gratifying in the slightest, outside of the certainty that she has gotten stronger since last year. It does the job, it’s not like she’s letting herself go, she supposes.

Mother is always in her room, and ever since yesterday evening, constantly speaking to people in Japanese over the phone. Kagami knows how rude it is to eavesdrop, and besides, it would be fairly useless. Partly because Mother also plays music to drown her voice, but mostly because guessing what she could be talking about isn’t difficult, it’s been in the news everywhere for a good dozen hours now and it has kept Kagami from having a peaceful night, and Marinette as well. Sending each other texts at 3 a.m. might not have been the greatest idea, but considering how terrible that new development is….

Another secret has been discovered below Agreste mansion when the firefighters were removing the rubble, a vertical passageway in the garden leading to an underground church of some sorts, and there… But it makes her sick just thinking of it. For all this time, she believed Mme Agreste had mysteriously disappeared, perhaps to another country, and all this time, she was just a few metres away from her own son, perfectly preserved, stuck in a state doctors at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital simply cannot understand, or so the articles she’s found online say. The one she is reading right now doesn’t add anything new to what she already knows.

The Ladyblog’s newest official article consists in pictures and footage of Ladybug’s patrol from yesterday night, her new wings are admittedly quite spectacular. Even without Hawk Moth, Paris’ hero is still around, helping out the best she can. Chat Noir’s absence has been noted, but this is far from the first time one of them doesn’t show up for a little while. As for Hawk Moth, Mayura and their being unmasked, not a single thing has been posted on the matter, the forum section has banned the topic altogether after an official request from Adrien. Alya’s decision has been the right one, discussing that kind of topic online, anonymously, may not lead to great results.

Not that complete silence is preferable. While Mother simply refuses to talk about what is happening. Marinette has sent her links to reliable news websites to keep her updated on the situation without having to wade through less trustworthy sources. Even then, that sensationalist tone is present every now and then. “Gabriel Paris stocks nosedive”, “Hawk Moth and Mayura awake after three days in coma” and “Paris mayor and wife on holiday amidst chaos” are the soberer titles; the more recent “Upsetting unearthing under Agreste lair” makes her think that articles with worse titles are to come in the near future. The Ladyblog used to read like that. The Lady Bugle certainly does, if Alya is to be trusted. Either way, these are terrible news, made worse by the way they are conveyed.

Adrien hasn’t replied to her latest text yet, or the one before that. He’s got every reason not to want to talk to anyone right now, especially her. She can only guess how hard it’s been for him. The boy has had to deal with his entire school, the Bourgeois brat, too many journalists who somehow got their hands on his phone number… He hasn’t made an appearance in public since his last day of school, he has deleted all his social media, bought a new phone with a new number he was kind enough to give her and Marinette. He hasn’t used it to talk to them once. He has people looking after him in London, which is the only reassuring thing in the middle of all this mess,

Kagami types a message, puts down her phone, nibbles on her toasted bread and looks out the window. Yet another sunny morning. She should have woken up earlier, it’s not like she’d have gotten more sleep by staying in bed, she could be out for a jog in the Jardin des Tuileries right now and yet she is stuck here. At least there is a valid reason for that today, other than her simply not being allowed to. Not that she likes that reason any better, if anything she’d rather have to stay inside because Mother decided it than… _This_. She has done her best to prepare herself for it, looked up her rights, even, just in case. Which she barely remembers. She shouldn’t need to, theoretically, and besides, she has dealt with much worse than that. She supposes.

“They will be here in half an hour!” Mother yells from her room. “Have you showered yet? Is the kitchen ready?”

“I have, and it is!” Kagami replies. “Obviously,” she adds under her breath. How stupid does Mother think she is? Besides, it’s not like they are about to get judged on the cleanliness of the house, that may even make them look more suspicious.

And now, for the best part of her day… She goes to her room and waits for the doorbell to ring or for her phone to buzz, preferably not both at the same time. All that sleep deprivation is making her moody. Twenty-eight minutes… Twenty-seven and a half… Twenty-seven and ten seconds… Five… Looking at her alarm clock won’t speed things up, quite the contrary. She could always do push-ups, that usually takes her mind off most things. Doing so right after a meal might not be a good idea. Fortunately, her phone rings and saves her from having to decide what to do instead. She doesn’t need to look at the screen to know who that is.

“ _Allo_?” That smile is almost audible.

“Hi,” Kagami says. “How did you sleep?”

“ _Just got up_ ,” Marinette yawns on the other end of the phone. “ _I read your text, and my answer is yes, I’d love to! Are you sure your mum will agree to let you go?_ ”

“I plan on asking her again later today,” Kagami answers. “I could really use a breath of fresh air.”

“ _I’m still sorry about the, err, necklace…_ ”

“Please, do not be,” Kagami shakes her head. “It is your jewellery box, you want us to keep a low profile and I understand that perfectly.”

“ _I don’t want to take any chances, just in case that guy gets too chatty, since he’s awake now,_ ” Marinette sighs. “ _Anyway, you’ll tell me how it went, when it’s over, okay? And if your mum agrees on letting you go._ ”

“I will. The school year is over but I might be able to make her think this is an educational outing.” Poor choice of words there, Kagami reflects.

“ _They’ll be there in fifteen minutes or so, if I remember properly,_ ” Marinette assumes, correctly. “ _They were late for me, they had me wait in a lobby for ages, but I guess it’ll be different for you since you’re Japanese and all_. ”

“I had never thought of that,” Kagami mumbles. “I suppose I will find out soon.”

“ _Even though you’d rather not_ ,” Marinette chuckles _. I’d tell you not to worry, but that’d be stupid. I was worried too, that I’d said something wrong_.”

“Do I sound nervous?” That can’t be good, that would make her suspicious when, again, she shouldn’t be.

“ _A little, but that’s only because I know you well-enough to notice._ ” That, she certainly does, perhaps even better than Mother. “ _And I was nervous too. Still was by the time I came home._ ”

“I hate that they have to come to the flat.” Even if that may be useful in the case against M. Agreste and Mme Sancœur. “And I hate that you had to go through this.”

“ _It’s over_ ,” Marinette says reassuringly. “ _And if I’m lucky, I shouldn’t have to set foot there ever again, and you won’t have to deal with all of this either!_ ”

“Did you get any news from Adrien?” Kagami asks. “I reached out to him yesterday evening but he has not answered me yet.”

“ _I did the same thing, then I texted Nino_ ,” Marinette replies. “ _He’s not doing well, at all. His aunt is here with him, and his… cat. So he isn’t entirely alone_.”

“Better in London than here.” The Graham de Vanily family is famous for its army of lawyers, which is an efficient way to dissuade paparazzis and journalists from as much as breathing in one of its general direction.

“ _Well, his cousin is pretty awful_ ,” Marinette grumbles. “ _But it’s always better than couch surfing, I—_ ”

The doorbell rings briskly, thrice.

“I think that might be my cue to end this conversation…” They are a good five minutes early. This is unexpected, and not the good kind of unexpected at all. “I will call you when this is over!”

“ _Keeping my fingers crossed! I love you!_ ”

“And I love you too,” Kagami whispers.

She turns off her phone, goes to the corridor. The entrance door must have been opened for them, the one to their flat is, and she can hear the lift going up, with its usual slow pace. Mother has done all of that, of course, she’s come out of her room, her hair perfectly coiffed and her expression the most neutral it has been in days; she has left her shinai in her room. She seems composed, self-assured. Not, not “seems”, Kagami is certain this is not an act. She isn’t sure whether that should reassure her or not. She squares her shoulders, as the lift reaches their floor. A woman with a round face steps out of it, followed closely by a small yet bulky moustachioed man, another man towers the two of them; all three sport slight scowls and dark backpacks. If Kagami didn’t know to expect the police to get evidence from her, she would have assumed these were ordinary people.

Only that first impression isn’t quite right. What would Marinette notice if she stood in her place? Oh, she sees it now. They may be wearing civilian clothing at first glance, but their shoes give them away, no one but the police would wear these black, sturdy-looking boots in the summer. These three have the exact same model on their feet, too. They still have them on when they come in, before Mother can invite them inside and Kagami has to bite the inside of her mouth to keep herself from asking them if she can see their badges, if they’re even allowed to do what they’re doing right now. That would only get her in trouble. She watches in silence as they look around for a few silent seconds before the woman turns to her colleagues.

“Do you wanna take the mother? I’ll handle the daughter.” She raises an eyebrow.

“Sure,” the first man grunts. “Whatever you want. Mme Tsurugi, if you’ll follow me…”

“In the living room, yes,” Mother offers. “Kagami, will you show the officer the kitchen?”

“Of course, Mother.”

“As for me, I will take care of the search,” the taller officer says, waving a sheet of paper around. A warrant, probably. She doesn’t see herself asking him if she could get a closer look at it, and so she keeps her head low.

The woman closes the door behind them, takes a microphone out of her bag and sets it on the table with a little more force than is strictly needed, and then does the same with a rather thin folder. She takes a chair, making it scrap against the tiled floor, and gives Kagami an insisting glance as she turns the microphone on. Is that… Intimidation? Is she meant to be terrified, somehow? Is that something the police do, scaring people into giving as many details as possible when they are asked questions? No wonder why Marinette was uneasy, she probably wasn’t afraid, considering all that she’s faced, but still, having someone this hostile and yet meant to help set things right… Kagami takes a seat.

“Evidence of Kagami Tsurugi,” The police officer speaks into the microphone. She turns to face Kagami, and stares her down. “So, Mlle Tsurugi, do you know what brings us here today?”

“You are here because of M. Agreste,” Kagami states the obvious. “My mother and I were close to him for some time and so you wanted to see us because you thought we could help you with the case you have opened. As witnesses.” At least the letter from the prefecture said so.

“You’re not wrong, though there have been a few changes I’ll bring up later. I thought we could start with very simple, direct questions. Did you know that Gabriel Agreste was Hawk Moth before last Wednesday?”

So the “witnessing” part has changed, the officer just won’t tell her that. That’s not entirely unexpected, her being a suspect. It doesn’t make it any easier to swallow.

“No,” Kagami lies confidently. “To me, he was a friend of my mother’s, as I said, and the father to my then-boyfriend. It was quite a shocking discovery to me. He never brought it up, in fact we seldom spoke about Paris and its superheroes in his company. As for Mme Sancœur, I barely saw her at all, we were not close.”

Perhaps that will suffice.

“The two of them have told us something very interesting about you. According to them, you and another girl are…Well,” the policewoman opens the folder and hands Kagami a sheet of paper. “You can read it yourself, this is a transcript from when Mme Sancœur woke up, and then M. Agreste.”

Shit.

She isn’t one to forget her lessons easily, and years of learning how to conceal her emotions do not let her down all of a sudden, quite the opposite. She puts on a bit of an act, not her greatest performance, and lets her eyes travel across the document with a deepening frown. Neither M. Agreste nor his assistant say Adrien’s name once, but they mention her extensively. So they did try to tell the police about her. It’s the word of the man who has almost destroyed Paris against that of a girl who, as far as the world knows, is only a fencing champion in the making, a very obedient, well-behaved, irreproachable young woman. She’s seen worse odds.

“This is… Are you sure he did not hit his head at some point? I am just _me_. I think the reason they might be obsessed with me is that I had broken up with M. Agreste’s son the week before. As for the other girl he thinks is Ladybug, Marinette Dupain Cheng, she is my best friend, and she also was one of M. Agreste’s apprentices. As far as I know, she is not a superheroine either.”

“So you have no connection to Ladybug or the dragon superhero whatsoever?” The policewoman’s face betrays annoyance. “You have met neither of them. Well, your statement is confusing, because we have pictures that show otherwise.”

“I did meet Ladybug a few time,” Kagami decides to stay very factual. “When I was akumatised and when she saved me from akuma attacks, if you can call that a connection. But half of this city’s inhabitants would be potential suspects if these were criteria.” And now for her defence. “So, as much as I would like to say I played a role in taking Hawk Moth down, I learned about it on the Ladyblog. I have never become a superhero and I doubt Ladybug would ever give powers to someone like me. And she has not. I have no idea who she is under her mask.”

“I see,” the officer says with a smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She turns to the microphone and speaks into it. “Side note. Since our searching the first girl’s room wasn’t conclusive, I doubt the warrant to go through the Tsurugi daughter’s things and look for… whatever that Miraculous would look like, will end up being useful either.”

For the blink of an eye, Kagami’s mask of indifference almost slips and she catches herself before she can give a relieved sigh. Marinette found a way to hide the box, and probably gave the police fake earrings, this would definitely be her area of expertise.

“… this is a waste of our time and resources, a surveillance program would be much more efficient than what we are doing,” the officer drones on. “Still, I will ensure it has been carried out properly, the memo did insist upon it, these are the orders, I am well aware of that, blah blah blah. Moving on.”

Before Kagami can return the sheet to the folder, the policewoman snatches it from her hand, and she knows better than to open her mouth in protest.

“Now that this is out of the way… This is not the main reason we came here. Tell me, Mlle Tsurugi, why did you come here in Paris?”

“Fencing,” Kagami says right away. “Mother believes that Japan has too few good fencing instructors, and that they would try to sabotage my training out of spite for my family’s name and legacy. She always had Armand D’Argencourt in mind.”

“And when did you first start discussing your moving out of Tokyo?” The woman glances at her phone and then back at her.

“It was around August last year, I believe. We arrived early in January.” Weren’t they supposed to be talking about… Anything other than that? Is this supposed to make her let her guard down? “The flat was ready, my tutors had been hired in advance, all that was left for me to do was to become one of M. D’Argencourt’s students, which I did.”

“And now, to the heart of the matter.” The officer closes the folder entirely. “Maybe you don’t know that, but M. Agreste had a fortress and catacombs built into his mansion and we’re trying to find out how that was, what connections enabled him to do so. Did he ever mention names, people?”

“I recall him praising the mayor and his spouse a few times,” Kagami answers, truthfully this time. “Though not for these reasons. He seldom spoke about things other than his work and the arts over dinner. I have a few names I remember, if—”

“Did he mention your parents? Were they involved with him, as something other than family friends?” The police officer’s stare is hard to evade.

“They saw them sign some documents together,” Kagami says, as neutrally as she can. “Though I never saw their content. I do not know where these are either, Mother did not share this information with me..”

“I see,” the officer nods unconvincingly. She takes out a clunky tablet from her bag. “We talked to our Japanese and English colleagues, since this has become an international investigation. Did your mother tell you what lead her to giving up her position within your grandfather’s own company?”

“I was not made aware of the reason, no.”

“Neither were we, the official paperwork was rather unhelpful. But, I believe we’ve got a rather good hypothesis your mother could confirm. You see, according to our theory, she was asked to step aside because of her misusing her influence and power. You’ve maybe heard that Mme Agreste had been found below the mansion, yes?” The policewoman doesn’t wait for her to nod to continue. “I was allowed to disclose this information to you and your mother, and only the two of you, so if it leaks, we’ll know where it came from. Mme Agreste… Her body had been put inside some kind of… What’s the word again? Sarcophagus, that’s the one. Quite a technologically advanced sarcophagus, I must say, filled with all sorts of hi-tech gadgets. Does it sound familiar? Is that something your family’s company could have built?”

It’s not like Father, or a hundred other engineers at Tsurugi Electrics wouldn’t be able to conceive and construct such a thing. That sounds exactly like the sort of things they’d try to create, even.

They don’t consider Mother a mere witness either.

“I… It could be,” Kagami says. “I had no idea… And Father did not ever show me anything resembling that.”

“Are you sure?” That stare again. “They never mentioned it in the last few months, you tell me. Before Paris, then?”

“Mother always tries her best to keep her work life private.” Staying calm has never been so difficult. “No, she never mentioned the reason for her departure. As I said, neither did Father.”

“And if I showed you these?” The officer turns the tablet towards her. “We took them yesterday when we discovered the crypt. Maybe you will recognise it?”

It is a series of pictures alright. Mme Agreste isn’t on any of them, fortunately, so they must have been taken after she’s been removed, but that’s the only relief she gets out of this. The family crest is undoubtedly there, on the side of the machine, a little weathered by time. The screen’s resolution isn’t the best, and yet it can’t be an edited picture, several other photos from different angles confirm that. Her parents have never brought that project up, Father usually brings some of his prototypes home for further testing, the many cars and cookers… But he also keeps some of the more important projects a secret, and surely she would have noticed something as large as this coffin.

“I had never seen it before you showed me the pictures.” Kagami finally looks up from the tablet and hands it back to the policewoman. “By the looks of it, I can safely call it Tsurugi Electrics product, yes, but other than that I am not sure what to say and I do not remember either of my parents discussing it.”

“I see. Well, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know, I’m sure your mother will enlighten us when we ask her the same question.”

“I am sure she will too,” Kagami forces a smile. “Is there anything you wanted me to tell you?”

“Not for now,” the officer says. “I’d like you to sign your evidence. Oh, and one last thing. If any of the things we’ve told you leave this room and end up in the news, as I said, we’ll know where the info came from.”

That last sentence makes Kagami want to roll her eyes. As if she’d purposefully ruin her family’s reputation like that. She hopes her annoyance doesn’t show.

The entire conversation has been transcribed on the tablet, and rewritten into a statement, it turns out. How that has worked, she can only guess, her interlocutor doesn’t seem open to any kind of conversation. She skims through her testimony… Some sentences hardly sound like her, they must have been reworked to fit the format better. The sooner she gets this over with, the sooner these people will be out of her house. Her signature is squigglier than she would have wished it to be, it barely looks like her signature at all, the stylus she is handed isn’t very responsive, or the screen, for that matter. The officer vaguely looks at it, touches the “send” icon and shoves the tablet back in her backpack.

They wait in complete silence for about ten minutes, according to the wall clock, though each minute feels like a full hour when you try to avoid looking at someone. Staring back would be a mistake. Kagami rarely trusts her immediate intuition, but it is as though everything in her body has decided to scream at her not to look up from her lap. The officer’s eyes are boring into the top of her head, she can practically feel the weight of the gaze. It’s hard not to let the dread settle in, not to think back on what she has said on record. She’s just a witness here, nothing more, isn’t she? At last, the policewoman gets up with the sound of her chair scraping against the kitchen’s tiled floor, turns the microphone off before she puts it in her bag.

“I believe we are done here,” the officers says.

In the corridor, the taller policeman is wearing an expression of boredom on his face, and a cardboard box in his arms, definitely large enough to fit her computer. Considering how carelessly he is holding it, however… It mustn’t be too heavy. The worst thing he could have taken would have been her journal, which contains absolutely nothing related to Marinette’s secret identity, or her own, and some of her jewellery which she’s never worn outside of formal occasions anyway. The smaller officer walks out the living room, waving a hard drive around with a triumphant smirk. Whatever is on it, Mother must have given it to him. If her own self-satisfied smile is anything to go by…

“We will recontact you in a few days,” the smaller policeman grunts. “In the meantime, we would advise you say here.”

“Of course,” Mother nods. She seems so… unfazed by everything. “We will be happy to help any way we can. In the meantime, have a good day!”

The door closes with a slam, but Kagami can’t feel her shoulders slump, if anything her back is even more tense than before. Mother, on the other hand, looks like she has just won a national championship.

“I must say Gabriel Agreste never ceases to disappoint me,” Mother chuckles. “You, a superhero? And that _Chinese_ girl? I knew him to be a desperate liar, but this? It must have been the concussion, or perhaps he was so desperate to drag me down with him he came up with this. Either way, he made a fool of himself.”

“It is what I told them,” Kagami says, almost clenching her teeth.

“With all the documents I have provided them with, the police should not need to bother us any longer.” Mother frowns. “I supposed they asked you about the preservation capsule.”

“They did. Is—”

“All you need to know is that it was perfectly legal for me to sell the prototype, and if anyone dares telling you otherwise, they are liars.” Mother’s voice is harsh, full of annoyance. “The paperwork was in order on my side of the deal, the Agrestes using it the way they did was a breach in the original contract. Mme Agreste will have a lot of explaining to do if she ever wakes up.”

How else could that… prototype have been utilised? Mother should have known a human-sized , coffin-shaped device would be used by, and on human beings, she is clever enough to be aware of that, far cleverer than that, anyone would see right through that. And yet she seems confident in that contract of hers. How is any of this—

“You will ask no questions, none of this is your concern,” Mother snaps. “You are not of age for this yet. Now that this has all been dealt with and the second half of last week entirely wasted, I expect your fencing to be flawless. We will practice in the morning, the salle has already been reserved, starting the day after tomorrow. I will dedicate my afternoons to my own projects, I expect you to do the same, as long as it does not impede your progress. I will not tolerate your mediocrity.”

“Yes, Mother,” Kagami lowers her head, her tone so dispassionate it barely feels like her own voice at all. “I think I will be going to the aquarium this afternoon, unless you oppose this decision.”

“A breath of fresh air would do you good,” Mother nods slowly. “I trust you will stay away from journalists and unsavoury company, yes?”

“Of course, Mother.”

Had Gabriel Agreste not been stopped, Kagami is certain she would be akumatised right where she stands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And I'm back! 
> 
> Sorry it took so long, life happened and focusing on writing fan fiction truly wasn't my priority! Anyway! We are now three chapters and an epilogue away from the end of this fic, and it might be the favourite thing I've created so far!
> 
> I look forward to seeing you all next Tuesday!


	17. Pneuma

Summer in Paris, Kagami decides, might be even worse than back in Tokyo. She already knew it to be hot, but this is bordering heatwave temperatures. It’s just as muggy, only with even less wind, and swarms of tourists as far as the eye can see. Some parts of the city have to be more bearable than others, she is vaguely aware of that. Some parts of the city but not her street, because Mother wanted them to live near the Arc de Triomphe and tourists love that landmark. The route she’s taken to reach her destination hasn’t been any better with its buildings and trees hardly offering any shade at all, and pedestrians unable to use the sidewalks properly.

The Jardins du Trocadero are even more crowded, and noisier too, to make things even more awful than they already are. Funny how her journey has gotten gradually worse to end on that high note of terribleness. And it’s not just the chatter or traffic, this alone is unpleasant but nothing outstanding. No, there’s more, namely the ongoing work to fix the roofs they have damaged last Wednesday. It is much louder than any crowd, the screech of rotating saws scraping their teeth at the zinc roofing and the constant hammering of pneumatic drills against the Pont d’Iéna’s asphalt. It is impossible to ignore, and frankly she could do without the entire world reminding her of how much of a mess everything is turning out to be.

None of this is helping her anger go down, and no amount of breathing exercises and mindfulness has helped in the last three hours either. It’s all stupid. Or, rather, she is the one being an idiot there. She should have anticipated Mother not telling her anything and acting as though everything is fine, because that’s just the way Mother is when she believes she has the upper hand on any situation and that’s the way she’s always behaved and she isn’t interested in changing that side of herself. And Kagami is well aware that she should have expected things to go exactly the way they went, that she should have known better than to hope for anything other than what happened. It doesn’t make her any less furious.

The crowd gets somewhat easier to navigate through, until she stops in front of a queue barrier, the usual rope and pole system, ending in front of a flight of steps going underground. The odd curved glass roof isn’t so different from those she’s seen at the entrance of the more recent metro stations. One thing is certain, they have done well to come early in the afternoon. Sure, there may already be too many tourists around to her taste as of now, but it will get objectively worse in a few hours when all of those who are having lunch right now are out again. Maybe Marinette herself is still enjoying her meal, their rendezvous is in sixteen minutes.

Kagami hadn’t planned on being this early, but as it turns out, she walks fast and takes long strides when she is on her own, and angry at everything. Well, not exactly everything. She isn’t mad at Marinette. In fact her girlfriend might be the only person in the entire world she isn’t mad at in a way or another. And still, her presence might not suffice to calm her down. It would be unfair to Marinette to be in such a mood around her.This is supposed to be a date, isn’t it?

She has picked one of her best shirts and her favourite pair of shorts for the occasion, and she’ll finally get to see her girlfriend after days of only hearing her voice on the telephone and seeing pictures of her. Dates are supposed to be fun, aren’t they? And she shouldn’t worry her girlfriend if there is nothing to for her to worry about. But she can’t lie to her by acting like everything went fine either, the last texts she has sent have that sort of neutral, distant tone she has been trying to unlearn when she is around people her age. It’s certain Marinette has picked up on that. This afternoon should be enjoyable for the both of them, so she ought to do her part and be in a good mood.

Kagami couldn’t have chosen anywhere worse than here to try and relax, every noise is like an aggression, the heat is getting exhausting, the trees provide little shade and she’s got nothing to do but stare at her phone. “A pair of good noise-canceling earphones” makes for a fresh addition to her list of things that would improve her life instantly. To make sure she won’t accidentally glare at a perfectly innocent passerby and give them a heart attack, she doesn’t look up from her screen, for all she cares it may have turned off. The truth is it’s all an excuse to avoid looking up as long as she doesn’t have to.

The slight vibration makes her snap out of her daze. Kagami can’t help it when the corner of her lips twitch upwards for a moment. She already knows who the message is from

“I bought the tickets,” it simply reads.

How is she so stealthy? Kagami shakes her head with a grin and all but runs down the stairs. Marinette’s smile is even wider than her own when their eyes meet, and for a second, it’s almost as if all that has happened in the last hours, the last few days had never happened at all. Before she can do much to prepare herself, Marinette’s frame comes crashing against hers and she nearly falls flat on her back as the girl wraps her arms around her and buries her face in the crook of her neck. Is it okay for them to do this here? They were much too bold at the Pont des Arts two Saturdays ago… But…

To hell with her hesitations. They have been apart for far too long, and now is not the moment to let her fears take over. If they are to be told off, then so be it. Kagami lets her eyes close as she returns the embrace, and she is almost sure Marinette has let out a small sigh. Her back gets a little less tense, her slight headache more manageable. Never mind going to the aquarium, she could stay like this for the remainder of the day and not regret a single second.

“Hey,” Marinette gives a watery smile when she finally takes a step back, and she might just be blinking a few tears out of her eyes. The girl straightens up her summer dress. “I missed you. I know, I know, it’s not even been a week and we’ve gone much longer without seeing each other, but….”

“Yeah,” Kagami . Her own eloquence never fails to amaze her, but then again, her throat feels too tight to start a long tirade. “I needed to see you, too.”

“But more importantly, you wanted to see all the fish.”

“And I wanted to see all the fish, obviously” Kagami nods. She manages to keep her face straight for a grand total of three seconds before her smile returns to her lips. “Speaking of which…”

“Yes, we probably gotta get going before it gets crowded!”

There are very few other visitors so far, just as planned, and none of them stand out enough to be worth remembering. Not many people are interested in going to the aquarium at 2 p.m. on a Tuesday afternoon, and who is she to complain? The temperature is comfortably cool down here, and everything is properly ventilated without it feeling excessive, the lighting is perfect for the place, and unlike the angry sun, it doesn’t come with the feeling of being scorched alive, which is always a nice plus. This might be the best place in all of Paris right now, or at the very least a close second behind Marinette’s house.

Having the first fish tank the visitors see be the most Parisian thing on earth is a bold choice, though it makes sense. Since they are in Paris, why not dedicate an entire tank to the local wildlife? Kagami has to say, she didn’t think there were so many fish in the river, she doesn’t recall seeing any of these that one time she had to travel underwater, especially that large sturgeon. This is definitely not what she’d expected, though perhaps she would have, had she taken the brochure. It’s not bad at all, really. She is no expert, she has only watched a dozen or so documentaries, but the fish look healthy, their scales are…

Alright, she is just forcing herself to find something noteworthy about the general dullness of that tank. And Marinette as well, if the way she steals glances at her every now and then to see if she’s bored is anything to go by. They move on to the next tanks, and things start getting a little more interesting. Species from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, spotted dogfish and eels and spiny lobsters, a few corals, some of which she had never seen before… Now that’s much nicer than those carps and other non-memorable fish with equally forgettable names.

Kagami doesn’t take any pictures, not yet at least, but Marinette does. Fish facts aren’t the way to flirt with or impress her girlfriend, Kagami is pretty sure of that, and even if it were, she simply doesn’t trust herself with delivering them in a non-pedantic way, the writing on the side of the tanks do most of that job already. She’ll keep her seahorses considerations to herself. The truth is, she doesn’t mind at all, and it’s more fun to have Marinette indulge her with childhood stories of her summers in Italy spent snorkelling with her grandmother and catching small fish with a shrimp net.

“… But that was ages ago, I was little, and then we lost sight of her for a few years, she went travelling around the world, but… Good memories, yeah!” Marinette smiles to herself. “Got lots of awful pictures of me wearing a hot pink swimsuit and matching arm floaties, if you ask my parents, I’m sure they’ll be happy to show you. It’s not a privilege they give to many, so use it well.”

“Do they know? About us, that is. That I am a lesbian,” Kagami hopes she doesn’t sound too panicked.

“You didn’t tell me if that was okay with you for me to share with, so no, not yet,” Marinette says. “I suspect they already know that we are together, but I understand that things for you aren’t…”

“And they do not mind…”

“I know they don’t,” Marinette replies. “Plus, I never felt like I had to talk about who I was attracted to with them, it never felt like a big deal to me, so I just… haven’t, talked about it with them or anyone else, I guess.”

“I am sorry for bringing this up…” And she’s ruined the mood. Perfect. Great job, Kagami.

“There’s nothing you need to apologise for,” Marinette shakes her head. “I won’t pretend I’m overjoyed by that, but —”

And then, noise comes from behind them, and their bubble bursts. Kagami’s back goes rigid. High-pitched voices, quite a few of them, and surprisingly loud, too. A group of children must have arrived. This shouldn’t be a good reason to be angry, slightly displeased for a few seconds, perhaps, but anything more than that would be an overreaction. This is fine, this is all fine and it was to be expected, and it could have happened earlier. She has kept her temper on check through situations much worse than people disturbing the quiet of an otherwise calm place. So why is her jaw clenching, why are her hands balling into fists if only for a second? She breathes in, counts up to three as she closes her eyes. When she opens them again, Marinette is looking at her with concern written all over her face.

“Do you want to sit down somewhere?” she asks calmly. “Or we can just leave and go to my house if you want?”

“No, really, I am al—” Kagami stops herself before she can tell that lie. “Maybe we could outpace the children. We should keep going… If that is fine by you?”

“Okay,” Marinette whispers. She holds on to Kagami’s arm and takes a step forward. The visit continues.

Of course, they don’t spend nearly as much time looking at each tank as before, not until the children’s racket gets fainter. Here are the usual anemone, clown fish and surgeonfish, and some striped garden eels which are all quite colourful and charming and would fit nicely in a picture book. Kagami wishes she could focus on any of them nearly as much as she’d like to. She can hardly pay attention to anything for more than a handful of seconds. Marinette stops to snap pictures every now and then, while still not letting go of her, though she does when they reach a room much darker than all the others they have visited so far. A sign above the entrance reads “Medusarium”. Kagami follows when Marinette steps inside.

The pretentiousness of that name might be justified. She’s never seen anything quite like this before, not with her own eyes, and it’s a completely different experience. Watching as the jellyfish move slowly, the bell and then the lappets and arms… “Dreamlike” wouldn’t begin to describe it. Each tank has its own set of carefully chosen lights that makes its inhabitants stand out, and the circular shape of the room, the way the tanks have been arranged next to one another gives the sense of being surrounded by the jellies without feeling threatened. It’s almost like they’re floating in outer space.

She isn’t the only one impressed. Marinette has sat on one of the room’s many benches, and taken a sketchbook and a pencil out of her bag. Kagami ends up taking a seat next to her and stares at the tank in front of her. For a little while, there’s only the faint, regular scratching of graphite against paper, the children are nowhere to be heard or seen, the comb jellies moving lazily in their tanks, shimmering from time to time, make no sound. For all Kagami knows, an hour could have gone by when Marinette finally closes the notebook and puts it back in her bag.

“So… I am sorry for earlier, that was out of proportions,” Kagami starts.

“You’re being too hard on yourself,” Marinette says as she scoots closer. “Yeah, you probably could have handled it better, but you didn’t yell at anyone even if you might have wanted to? Today hasn’t been an easy day for you, you’ve tried to hide it in your texts, but your back was really stiff at first when we hugged, so yeah, you tried to bury your anger and it surfaced back anyway.”

“How do you… Do that?” Kagami blinks. “Reading people so well.”

“I learned, I kinda had to, with… You know.” Marinette points at her earrings. “That and I started to look into therapy after the whole Boulevard des Batignolles thing. And I’m not that good at reading people, really I just think we’ve known each other for a little while now, and that I’ve figured out one thing or two about you. So, this morning went poorly.”

“I was interrogated as though I was a suspect. Which was not planned at all, because why would it be? And to make things even worse than they already were, I learned things about my parents they had kept hidden from me, really important things linked to all that has been happening in the last few months, maybe the last few years. Mother…”

Her voice is shaking now, and she doesn’t know how to stop it. “When I tried to ask her about it afterwards, she brushed it aside, she pretended that all was well and that nothing had happened, nothing I needed to worry about, anyway. It has always been that way with her, her keeping me in the dark about things, only never something this big, and now all she tells me is that she expects me to be a good fencer and keep my head down. We had lunch like a nice normal noble family and we barely spoke and that was it!”

“And it was hard to cool off in the same flat as her, since you couldn’t actually voice your anger,” Marinette guesses, correctly, almost annoyingly so. “And going outside afterwards, after days of being cooped up… This sucks. And yeah, directing your anger at people who have nothing to do with that definitely isn’t the right thing to do, but I’m not going to tell you not to be angry either. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you more than I did.”

“I honestly do not see how you could have helped.” Looking up from her lap, Kagami adds, “And I do not blame you for that either. I cannot see how any of this situation could be magicked away, all I can do is wait for things to get better, and I have no idea how they could right now. I am not sure the power of love can solve that. And I do not know what to make of that anger, where to direct it. It would be easier to let it die down, if I just blanked it all out of my mind.”

“It’s not always a bad thing, anger,” Marinette says. Just because that man used that to do what he did doesn’t mean… How to put it… It doesn’t mean that you can’t find a way to use all that energy for something good. To make it become more than just anger, if that makes sense.“

Kagami isn’t sure she fully understands, but she nods anyway. It must make some sense.

“If you ever try to stand up to your mother, I’ll help the best I can.” Marinette’s tone is almost solemn. “I know it won’t be enough, but I’ll do all I can, for as long as you’ll want me to. That’s a promise.”

Slowly, Kagami reaches out for the other girl’s hand, and intertwines their fingers. She may not be good with words right now, but that may just be enough to express all the love and gratitude she feels for Marinette. “Alright,” she finally says. “I am still not sure what to do about, well, any of things that happened, but I won’t give up on trying to figure it all out. Knowing that you will help me… It means a lot to me.”

“You’ve done the same for me,” Marinette says warmly. “It’s only fair that I help you back.” With that, she gets up from the bench. “Should we get going?”

They do, and Kagami has to keep herself from kissing Marinette. Other people might see, they were too bold two Saturdays ago, too desperate. Holding hands can pass as close friendship, but a true kiss… A peck on the cheek will have to do for now. The visit continues, there is a “Japanese zone” tank filled with spider crabs, and a few metres away from there, a fish petting tank with koi carps. There’s something absolutely revolting about the very idea of touching a live fish. The two girls exchange a glance and move on to the next room.

At this point Marinette is practically vibrating with excitement, and that is a very contagious feeling. They are approaching the end of their visit, which can only mean that they are about to reach the most advertised part of the aquarium, the one that probably had Marinette consider going there in the first place. Just before that is a collection of fluorescent corals but they hardly pay attention to them.

The tank is immense, with a tunnel in its centre for the visitors to pass through, the ceiling is high enough for the experience not to feel claustrophobic. That alone is quite the sight, the massive jagged rocks on the sides, and sandy floor are probably meant to replicate shallow reefs, and doing quite a decent job at that. The tank itself is lit by lamps that replicate natural light rather convincingly while discreet LED strips embedded in the floor, currently turned off, must be on when it gets darker. Like the rest of the aquarium, it seems rather recent, though not brand new by any means. Unlike most of the aquarium, it seems that the tank is empty.

For a second or two, they don’t see much in the way of fish. Surely there would be a sign somewhere to warn the visitors that something has happened that would explain why that is, Kagami can’t help but think. And then Marinette almost gasps and she almost drops her hand. A few metres above them are grey and blacktip reef sharks, probably as tall as they are, completely ignoring them as they are probably used to with all the other visitors, swimming effortlessly, never truly touching one another though they stay rather close. The children from earlier will most certainly ooh at that sight, and they’ll be perfectly justified in doing so.

They tend to stay around the same areas during all of their lives, blacktips, Kagami recalls. That must be why they are easier to keep in here. The grey reef sharks, on the other hand, aren’t homebodies, and the tank might be big enough for them, but just barely.

Marinette turns to her with a surprised look. Surprised and amused, too.

“I spoke my thoughts out loud, didn’t I?” Kagami groans.

“It’s okay, really!” Marinette smiles at her. “Nothing to be embarrassed about at all. I knew you were somewhat interested in that sort of things, I looked at the shows you watched on Webflix, but I had no idea you’d remember actual facts! I kinda did the same back in Orsay, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Kagami nods. “I am not as knowledgeable about sharks as you are when it comes to art history, unfortunately.”

“We’ll have to make up for both of these things, watch more documentaries and visit more museums together, then,” Marinette says very seriously. “I’m staying here all summer, so…”

“I will be happy to,” Kagami nods. “I should be back in Japan for a little while in August, there is that Tanabata festival in Sendai I attend every year… But for now I am meant to keep myself busy in the afternoon, in a way that will not draw media attention towards me or my family for the remainder of the summer. If you had told me that I would have to lie to see you a few months ago, I wouldn’t have believed, but at this point, telling her anything but the truth has become as easy as breathing.”

Her expression sours a little as she continues. “I still have to be careful not to get caught if I am to go out every day, since I can no longer use that tutorship excuse. Mother might become suspicious. I obviously cannot tell her I am with you, she would do her best to make sure we never see each other again if she were to learn about us. She has made it clear to me that she hates you.”

“Well, I’m not particularly fond of her either,” Marinette crosses her arms.

“And I can hardly blame you for that,” Kagami winces. “Oh, she might have an attack when she learns that we are in the same school this September. But that is not the point, the point is, since we are definitely seeing each other this summer, we will have to do things strategically to ensure she won’t start noticing things we do not want her to notice.”

“And you don’t mind that? Hiding stuff from her, that is.”

“I would mind not seeing you a lot more than getting in trouble for telling lies to Mother,” Kagami replies right away. She’d rather not have to hide at all and feel safe to be who she truly is in the open, but they both know that. “I think I stopped feeling guilty about that as soon as we exchanged our phone numbers, honestly.”

There’s no way Marinette hasn’t noticed her blush; she doesn’t comment on it, not verbally at least. Her little self-satisfied smile and the way she gently tugs at her arm says it all. She is much better at spotting fish, Kagami can’t help but note. Must be all that snorkelling. They do get to see more grey reef sharks, a zebra shark (“their whiskers allow them detect small prey much more efficiently than their eyes would”), nurse sharks (“the only thing I know about these is that they tend to stay close to the sea floor and walk with their fins… I think”).

There is the occasional other visitors whispering to one another, but nothing that would disturb the cool. When Marinette glances at their intertwined fingers and then at her with a questioning look, Kagami gives the girl’s hand a small squeeze. This might just be the calmest she has been in weeks, and she has to say, her surrounding help immensely.

Until a cohort of excited children all but run and crash against the tank’s walls, followed closely by two twenty-somethings sporting the same baggy orange t-shirt and look of despair and exhaustion. This might just be their cue to leave. It’s only a matter of climbing up a flight of stairs, resisting the impulse to buy each other something at the aquarium’s shop and dodging past the throng of tourists — children squirming, their parents yelling at them in at least five different languages— in front of the ticket booth since they can’t be bothered to notice that there is a way out, and they are back to the surface.

It’s still sweltering in the Jardins du Trocadero, and much too crowded to Kagami’s liking, there are still workers fixing the Pont d’Iéna, though they have stopped using their pneumatic drill. And yet, to her own surprise, there’s no rush of anger to overtake her, a slight pang of annoyance at most, and a bit of tiredness though truly, it was already there before. Next to her, Marinette has put her sunglasses on, tinted brown lenses on thin metallic frames, which doesn’t keep her from checking her phone. It’d be rude to look over her shoulder, Kagami reminds herself, Marinette’s business is Marinette’s business, as simple as that.

She glances at her own phone. There is still time, a good hour and fifteen minutes before she is expected to be home again. Back when they talked about going on that aquarium date, they had something planned afterwards, hadn’t they? She remembers, now, and she might just know what Marinette is doing on her phone.

“You bought my ticket to the aquarium, so let me pay for your ice cream,” Kagami offers. Judging by her girlfriend’s expression, she’s deduced correctly. Well, more like guessed. But that’s besides the point.

“You really don’t have to pay me back for that, you know?” Marinette quirks an eyebrow. “I did it because I wanted to make you happy.”

“I know I am not obliged, but I still want to do it,” Kagami retorts. “And I would be happy to buy you ice cream!”

“Alright,” Marinette gives in. “I ordered speculoos for you and raspberry sorbet for me, if that’s fine by you?”

“That sounds perfect to me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Taking the perspective of a character who enjoys a place you personally don't is really hard, y'all!! 
> 
> Paris's aquarium isn't bad by any means but outside of the medusarium, it's truly quite underwhelming and much too expensive for what it's worth. 
> 
> I like the La Rochelle aquarium much better.
> 
> With these fishy considerations, I'll be seeing you next week! In the meantime, take care!


	18. First steps

“Your parry was inadequate. Again.”

Oh, Mother and having a basic sense of pedagogy, two notions that have only gotten more antithetical with every passing year. And it has been noticeably worse throughout this week. Kagami knows for a fact that it isn’t because her fencing skills are worsening, she would argue it’s quite the opposite. This is the best she’s ever been with a sabre, and she is almost certain she hasn’t reached her limit yet. No, her parry was far from inadequate, her timing was good, her grasp on her sabre sufficient, and taking into account the fact that fencers seldom put all their weight into their attacks the way Mother does when they are training, considering the fact that they have been at it for a good hour and a half… It was a perfectly fine parry. It nearly allowed her to score a touch.

“Yes, Mother.”

Kagami returns to her en garde mark and waits for her adversary to ready herself once more. It’s not like there is anything else to do, it truly is nothing more than a fencing salle with white walls and a light brown parquet floor, a few windows and a wall clock. Mother is back where she is meant to be and the bout can resume. (“Allez!”) For perhaps the two-hundredth time this morning, Kagami lunges and deflects her own attack at the last second to avoid locking blades with Mother. On her right, upwards, too fast to be dodged. No choice but to go for a _seconde_. Oh, it won’t be so easy to avoid contact now. She immediately brings her sabre to her side to meet her opponent’s thrust, lets the attack slide against her weapon. Now is her chance. With a flick of her wrist, she disengages her blade, tries to go for a cut to Mother’s shoulder. The touch is hers, she feels the tip of her sabre against—

A sharp string erupts on her left arm.

“Sometimes it is hard to believe that I am blind and not you! Can you not recognise a trap when you are presented with one?”

That would be an appropriate definition of Mother’ fencing style, a series of carefully laid, deadly traps, nearly impossible to escape once activated. Perfect for a competition. For a lesson, not so much. That blow was much stronger than what would be strictly required to score a point. Which she hasn’t even scored, any competent referee would see they touched each other at the exact same time. The pain is almost gone, and Kagami is fairly her arm won’t bruise. Making it a simultané was pointless, she hasn’t learned anything from this that she doesn’t know already. Mother is well aware of that. And yet she did so anyway, with more animosity than would have been strictly necessary to get a point across. None of it would get her in trouble with a referee, this is all within the rules.

An onlooker not intimately familiar with Tomoe Tsurugi and her fencing style wouldn’t have noticed that. They wouldn’t notice the slight hint of nervousness in her voice, hidden underneath all that contempt, or the fact that the strength of her attack was perfectly controlled and not her accidentally slipping or underestimating her own abilities. Kagami is no mere onlooker, she’s seen it all before. This has always been Mother’s way of expressing her anxieties and dissatisfactions without actually voicing them directly, or addressing their source. She only behaves that way when she can get away with it, when she believes the people in front of her are harmless, unable to understand her, too stupid to understand.

As is too often the case, Mother is misjudging her intelligence. It really doesn’t take a genius to figure out where Mother’s stress is coming from. Mayor Bourgeois and his wife should be under investigations very soon for acts of embezzlement now that a rather extensive article has been published in the country’s biggest papers. Scandals of corruption within the Parisian police have been unveiled by another team of journalists. Protests have been ongoing ever since that reveal, and with the concerns of bribery surrounding the judges and prosecutors in charge of the Gabriel Agreste case, they may just get larger if more news keep piling up like that. Mother doesn’t talk very often, and when she does, they discuss everything but that. She has even taken the radio away to be sure not to hear anything that might bring the topic up.

“Allez!” she bellows.

Once again, Kagami lunges, her feint doesn’t work, which was to be expected — Mother’s blindness hasn’t made her a worse fencer — and neither does her thrust. So far, all is going accordingly to plan. Now comes the trickier part. She shifts her feet slightly, withdraws her sabre and fakes a lunge immediately. At this distance, Mother can’t afford to take risks, and indeed, sabre closes in with her head. The blades meet. Now. Kagami beats her opponent’s blade away with all her might and extends her sword arm. Mother’s sabre comes down on the side of her fencing mask.

Kagami’s ears are still buzzing when she takes a step back and returns to her en garde position, she doesn’t hear Mother’s empty words of advice, if they can even be called that. There must be advice hidden in there, underneath all that scorn, she simply can’t find them. Only twenty more minutes to go, according to the wall clock. She can manage that. Today hasn’t been sensibly worse than yesterday, and there were times, back in Japan, when Mother simply did not hold her strength back. Come to think of it, that period lined up perfectly with Mother stepping down from Tsurugi Electrics’ board of executives. Well, this is not too bad. It won’t leave marks on her body.

It doesn’t make any of this okay, and she can’t believe it took her talking to Marinette to become aware of that. Or perhaps she already knew, but refused to admit it to herself?

“En garde! Prête?” Mother intones gain.

A feint, a lunge followed by a thrust that will be parried, an upward cut that will fall short of its target if she doesn’t watch her feet and that will leave her vulnerable to attacks coming from lower. It would work against any other opponent her age. She is fast and her aim is always true. Only, she is not fencing against a regular adversary, is she? There ought to be another way to score this touch. It will never be enough for Mother, so she may as well avoid being nagged at if she can help it. She readies herself and tightens her grip on her sabre. Time to see if her skills as a strategist have improved. Well, she’s been trying for almost two hours now, but that is besides the point.

“Allez!”

As soon as the words ring out, they are followed by the dull sound of footsteps on the small salle’s wooden floor. Kagami’s advance is swift, her feint nearly flawless. When she gestures for a thrust, Mother’s hips shift slightly. Kagami’s reach isn’t sufficient for a properly-aimed thrust. It doesn’t have to be. She extends her sword arm and immediately flicks her wrist just as her opponent starts mirroring the gesture, and ducks ever so slightly. Her blade slashes through the air and meets a resistance in the form of Mother’s lamé, her sleeve, just above the elbow. Mother may have the bigger reach but her sabre is pointed at an empty space.

Kagami straightens up, takes her fencing mask off and creates some distance between the two of them. Mother lowers her sword, and says nothing.

“The touch is mine, Mother,” Kagami says hesitantly. “Shall we continue?”

“It was luck, sheer luck.” Mother’s face is hidden behind her own fencing helmet, but Kagami is certain it is perfectly blank, not betraying any emotions. “This is not the way you score a touch.”

“But it was not luck,” Kagami states as calmly as she can. “I followed the rules, any referee would tell you that mine was a valid touch.” Mother’s fatigue may have played a role too, but it’s not like she isn’t tired as well.

“Your timing was imperfect.” Mother’s grip on her sabre betrays the aloofness of her tone.

“I did score the touch, did I not?” Kagami snaps.

One of them will have to back down, or else this will turn into a shouting match.

“Well, I doubt you will be able to repeat that accidental success of yours,” Mother huffs at last. “So, shall we continue? En garde!”

“Prête?” Kagami replies. She slips her fencing mask back on, squares her shoulders. An advance, a thrust immediately followed by a downward cut. If that strategy falls apart, which it probably will, a parry and then a retreat, and a defensive thrust to prevent Mother from advancing. Perfectly doable. But what then?

“Allez!”

Her footwork is precise, but her opponent won’t let her win that easily, her entire stance screams “a well-prepared attack” and… There it is, the perfect stop-hit that would certainly force her sabre out of line if their sabres were to meet. Kagami stops dead in her tracks, lets the blow miss her and resumes her assault. Her momentum is gone when she thrusts her sword forward. And now, Mother’s parry. She shifts her stance to step back as soon as she gets the chance. It takes longer than she’d expected, Mother attempts to attack her and disengages their blades. It’s perfect for what she needs. Kagami steps back with her sword arm outstretched. Mother doesn’t get to move forward, though she initiates the motion. Kagami leans forward. The tip of her sabre catches her adversary right in the middle of the chest.

* * *

Surely, better ways to deal with anger and ego issues than this must exist, Kagami reflects as she tries to balance her spoonful of rice broth to make sure not to accidentally spill any of it on her desk. Maybe yelling into a pillow, or seeing a mental health professional to learn saner ways to process all these negative feelings would do the trick. Then again, the feeling of accomplishment that came with scoring no less than four times before the end of today’s session was well worth having lunch in her room and facing Mother’s temper. Having her keys taken away and being forced to stay inside for the remainder of the day, on the other hand, is rather unpleasant, but nothing a few texts to the right people won’t fix.

**12:57 PM**

**Kagami:** _Sorry I did not answer your message right away! Of course, I will come, it is important for me to be here with you._

_There is only one small problem, Mother won’t let me go out…_

**12:58PM**

**Marinette:** _are you okay?? did she lock you up?? ill work my magic and find a way to break you out!_

**Kagami:** _I will leave my window open, then! She should be gone in about ten minutes, yet another business meeting, or so she told me. She should not be back before late in the afternoon_

**12:59PM**

**Marinette:** _she sounds really involved in her whole company thing huh?_

**Kagami:** _It is all we talk about, these days. At least it keeps her busy, and it means I get to see you more!_

**Marinette:** _see you real soon!! <3_

**Kagami:** _< 3_

She must look stupid, grinning at her phone like that. And she couldn’t care less about that fact. When Mother opens her door and tells her that she will be gone until dinnertime and that she expects her to stay here, Kagami has to do everything in her power to make her answer not sound too joyful. As soon as she hears the door lock, she rushes to the kitchen to put her empty bowl in the dishwasher, brushes her teeth and resists the temptation to put on any kind of make-up. It’s not like there’d be time for that, and besides, Marinette has already seen her with her face bare so there’s nothing to feel too self-conscious about. And who would wear make-up at a protest? She puts on her shoes, too.

One last check at her bag to make sure she’s taken everything, her bottle of water, a photocopy of her passport, her address, a few things to snack on, an extra fully-charged battery for her phone. Perfect. She sends Marinette a short text, opens her window and waits. What will it be this time? Longg’s wind form? Multimouse again? Probably that, it seems to be her favourite transformation outside of Ladybug. She doesn’t have to wait very long before she gets an equally short answer to her text. When Marinette says she is on her way, it means either two things: she might already be here with her, or that she’s just got out of her flat. Multimouse can still send texts, so the former could entirely be possible. Perhaps she could ask out loud?

Before she can do that, a glowing blue portal appears in the middle of the room and sure enough, Marinette steps out with a bright smile. There’s no one to tell them how to behave here, no one to look at them disapprovingly. Her lips meet Marinette’s, and she smiles into the kiss when she feels her girlfriend’s hand caress her hair. When she pulls back from the kiss, she presses her brow against Marinette’s. How tempting it would be to stay in her room all afternoon long… God, she is so gay. But there will be other days for kissing, maybe the rest of their lives.

Kagami takes a step back, clears her throat and says, “So… The rendez-vous point is at Place de la République, right!”

“I know a shortcut or two!” Marinette grins, and she rolls up her left sleeve. There’s an impressive assortment of bracelets with small gems on her left wrist, a few are a light blue, some other orange and red. She hasn’t put on her earrings. “Are you still sure you want to come with? I know it’d be your first protest, so if you’re not feeling too good…”

“Like I said, it is important for me to be there,” Kagami replies. “And I am well. So… Lead the way?”

“Nino and Alya and a whole lot of other people will be here, so I think we’ll be joining them,” Marinette informs her before she crushes one of the small blue pearls between her fingers. She holds out her hand. “If you will?”

Kaalki’s portals feel cold and smell like nothing she knows, but they do their job just fine. Kagami doesn’t let go of Marinette’s hand as their feet touch the pavement of a small, conveniently empty alley and she can already hear the crowd’s chants, though the words are too indistinct to make out. They’re really close to the Canal Saint Martin, she can’t help but notice. So, they’ll be marching from there to Paris’s Palais de Justice, the country’s top court of law. Them and a crowd of thousands of people according to the local news. As they come closer to their destination, Kagami is starting to think that might be underestimating the scale of today’s march. The chatter only gets louder as they keep on walking towards its origin. They stop for Marinette to check her phone and Kagami takes the sight in.

No wonder the Place de la République is so often chosen for large gatherings, it’s the perfect size for that, there are a few trees but otherwise, it is a fairly unobstructed square. On days without demonstrations, it must be a nice place for skateboarding, and the massive bronze statue meant to represent, well, the French republic, must stand out quite a bit. It still does, and so do the people sitting on its large stone pedestal, some have climbed it as well. There is no way this is only a few hundred protesters standing here. And yet, it doesn’t feel overwhelming at all, there isn’t an ounce of aggression coming from anyone here.

The mood is definitely not the same as that of the Jardins du Trocadero, where there isn’t a proper crowd to speak of, rather a series of small groups all going their own way would be a more accurate description. The Place de la République’s crowd, on the other hand… There are banners and signs everywhere, quite a few university students rehearsing their chants, music, the smell of… Food, for some reason? A makeshift stand handing out what looks to be sandwiches of some sorts, though Kagami can’t tell from where she is. There are groups of friends chatting to one another, sure, but it doesn’t feel like they are trying to exclude themselves from the rest of the crowd.

This is nothing like the tales of the endless Parisian protests she’d heard before moving in, though these had apparently become scarcer with Hawk Moth’s presence. For all she can tell so far, this is much closer to the content of all the texts Alya — she still needs to thank her for her effort — has sent her describing the marches from the two previous days. She expects it to get loud when the procession gets moving, but everyone seems… Well, not relaxed, this is not an outdoors yoga class, but they’re not oozing with belligerence. Of course. Marinette wouldn’t suggest they take part in that if she knew things could get bad or stressful, at least from the protesters’ side.

“They’re near the métro entrance,” Marinette finally says.

And they’re not too hard to spot either. Alya and Nino are here, and Rose, Juleka and Luka who has quite a few cardboard signs under his arm. It takes Kagami two seconds to figure out the reason why Nino is talking in front of his phone with a wide smile: he is having a video call with Adrien. So he’s the one keeping him up to date with everything. It’s a good thing that it’s him, it must be much easier for Adrien to talk to him anyway. Adrien has answered her texts politely if a little distantly, including the one in which she’s informing him of her dating Marinette. There’s none of that distance between him and Nino.

“… and here they are, if you wanna talk to them,” Nino says. After a second, he turns his phone’s screen towards them, Marinette takes it.

“ _Hey!_ ” Adrien’s voice comes out a little disjointed. His hair looks a little longer, not as neatly coiffed as it used to, he has dark rings under his eyes, which is… new. His face brightens a little when he sees them. “ _I’m glad you came! Wish I could be here too!_ ”

“Hi, Adrien,” Marinette waves at Nino’s phone. “We kinda had to come, didn’t we?”

“ _I guess so_ ,” he says. “ _He can’t just get away with… Everything. Err… Anyway, how’s it going? Other than…_ ”

“Fine, fine,” Kagami replies. Oh, this couldn’t get more awkward than this. “Mother is busy as ever.”

“ _That doesn’t surprise me!_ ” he chuckles. “ _And you, Marinette?_ ”

“Pretty good,” Marinette replies. Behind them, there seems to be some movement, the chants are getting a little louder. “But it looks like the protest has begun. We’ll… Talk to you later, alright? I hope all is going well!” She waves her hand in front of the screen.

“ _Yeah_ ,” Adrien looks at his ring with a smile. “ _Pretty well. Err, see you, I guess!_ ”

“You take care, alright Adrien? I’ll tell you how it all went!” Nino takes back his phone and ends the video call. “Well, dudes, we gotta move to the front of the march if we wanna get a few good pictures.”

The couple has become a kind of journalistic duo, and though none of their work has been posted on the Ladyblog, Alya’s own social media pages are filled with her footage of the protests, with blurred faces. They may not exactly be fully blown journalists just yet, neither of them owns a press pass, for one, but this has been the main way Kagami has kept herself informed, well, that and Alya’s texts. They probably aren’t the only ones documenting the events for themselves, other amateurs with cameras are everywhere. There’s little if any wind today, which probably explain the few amateur drones they’ve seen flying by.

“So, is it your first protest, Kagami?” Rose is practically vibrating with energy. “Don’t worry, it should go well! The prefecture gave us its permission this time…”

“Unlike yesterday and the day before,” Juleka seems to mumble, though she could have said something else entirely and Kagami wouldn’t know.

“My parents wouldn’t let me go,” Marinette winces. “But this is a legal demonstration, so they were more than happy to encourage me! And there are a lot more people than the previous days, right?”

“Yes,” Alya says between clenched teeth as she fumbles with a small handheld camera she has taken out of her bag. “It’s just like Marinette said, it’s legal and better organised, so a lot more people have had the time to come.”

“Tomorrow’s might be a little trickier,” Luka says as he hands his sister a cardboard sign. “We’ll say hello to the Ministry of the Interior, also legally, and ask them why they still haven’t done anything about that whole… Massive scale corruption stuff.”

“We are marching for the exact same reason today, are we not?” Kagami raises an eyebrow. “It may seem very naive of me to ask, but why would tomorrow be any different?”

“Err… We’re only going to the Palais de Justice to demand that they do something about all these corrupt judges and the mayor,” Luka replies. “Not cops directly.”

“The police might still gas us today because apparently that’s what they do,” Marinette adds. “But it’ll be worse when we march against the institution itself.”

“I’m not sure I’ll film this one,” Alya says. “I like having two eyes that sort of work. Anyway, see you guys at the houseboat later!?”

“Of course,” Juleka mumbles.

“See you later, dudes!” Nino waves at them. “You be careful out there, alright?”

The two of them walk away, towards what must be the head of the protest. Things have started to move, the chants from earlier are definitely louder by this point, more distincts, with signs and banners held up. Kagami simply can’t get a clear view of them, stopping to do so would make her bump against some other protestors, and not looking at her feet every now and then is the guarantee to stumble and fall down. Not that she would be trampled to the death, she is fairly certain that wouldn’t happen, she has Marinette by her side, and the rest of the crowd seems friendly enough. There are people standing on the large statue and though Kagami can’t quite understand what they’re saying, they’re in the middle of what looks like a very passionate speech.

The march begins. Crowd barriers have been set on both sides of the Rue de Turbigo, and starting the protest there might not have been the organisers’ best choice, Kagami can’t help but think. It’s much too narrow for such a large number of people, almost claustrophobic. For a little while, the chants die down, replaced with chatter. So perhaps it wasn’t the organisers’ choice to take this path after all. This march isn’t turning out to be uplifting at all, at least for the time being… If Marinette’s frown is anything to go by, she is thinking the same… Yet, Rose and Juleka don’t seem demoralised at all, or Luka, for that matter. And then, from up ahead in the protest, things seem to be less cramped, she can see a few banners and signs rising from the crowd. They walk on.

In a matter of minutes, they have reached the Boulevard de Sebastopol, and it is much wider than the previous street. Traffic has fortunately been stopped, more crowd barriers have been set up, separating the protesters from other pedestrians. Some bystanders are looking at them, journalists too, and Kagami makes sure they stay in the middle of the crowd to avoid being photographed. The chant — “We want justice!”, she now understands — gets louder and Luka joins it, and Marinette too, Rose holds her sign higher, so does Juleka. Kagami tries to find the courage to speak the words aloud as well. They come easier than she had expected them to. Marinette looks at her proudly.

Their phones buzz at the same time.

**2:29PM**

**Alya:** _A whole bunch of riot police in full armour and their buses in front of the Pont au Change. We haven’t reached them yet but they’re blocking the road and their shields are out._

The two girls exchange a glance, Marinette’s frown is deeper than hers. They march on, and the street is starting to get familiar… Oh. Right. They’re walking towards the Place du Chatelet. And sure enough, after a few more minutes of walking and chatting with a few other protesters, Kagami can make out the statue on top of that weird fountain. The people in front of them have slowed down. They soon come to a stop themselves. Kagami is many things, but tall isn’t one of them, and she simply cannot tell what is going on a few metres in front of her, the chatter intensifies, though the chant does not die down. Once more, her phone buzzes.

**2:34PM**

**Alya:** _Protestors trying to talk to the police to ask them to be let through, they’ve formed a wall with their shields_

Reading that text sends Kagami’s mind racing. She shouldn’t have come here. Wasn’t this supposed to be a peaceful protest? There are old people here, and kids like her, they’re all just regular people. And they were allowed to march here, weren’t they? It’s within their rights to be here marching today, isn’t it? So why is this happening? Luka tenses, Juleka unzips his backpack, takes out a couple of water bottles and stars handing them out to the people around them. Rose puts her sign down, and whispers of uncertainty start filling the crowd. A loud voice is screaming at them, but Kagami just can’t make out the words. It sounds violent.

**2:36PM**

**Alya:** _Some cops putting their gas masks on_

“Shit,” Marinette whispers under her breath. Her hand closes against her left wrist.

It comes before any of them could prepare for it, a sudden sound, like a gunshot, and Kagami can’t help but flinch and close her eyes, and try and ready herself for… But the white smoke never comes out, at least not in their direction. Instead, the wind rises all of a sudden, a gust that makes the trees shake and Kagami’s hair get into her face. A few signs fly out of their owners’ hands, the few drones still in the air smash against walls. The cloud of tear gas is being blown back at the policeman who fired that grenade. Kagami is almost certain she knows what happened. Her girlfriend winks at her and, for a split second, something round seems to be glowing between her thumb and index before it vanishes. The wind dies down

The chatter intensifies, more yelling coming from up ahead. Kagami stands on the tip of her toes, holds up her phone like a periscope, and she sees them. Alya wasn’t lying when she said the police was wearing armour. Helmets with visors, shoulder and knee pads, all black, forming a wall with their transparent shields. They’re dressed to fight. And then, it all happens in the blink of an eye, a grenade launcher is fired, and four more after that, Kagami watches as Marinette rips one of her bracelets from her left wrist, crushes the red pearl and sneaks quickly to the front of the demonstration with orange and red pearls between her fingers.

This time, the gust of wind is more akin to a gale, and though Kagami has braced herself, it feels as though someone is shoving her forward, and she isn’t the only one, Rose almost trips over. Once more, the cloud of tear gas never reaches the demonstrations, the last few drones still in the air crash down, some of the crowd barriers are knocked over; Kagami isn’t the only one to cover her ears. When she looks up at the sky, dark clouds have gathered right above the protest. Instinctively, she closes her eyes, and she’s right to do so. Even with her eyes closed, the flash of lightning makes her cringe. When she opens them again, a shape clad in red, black and gold is standing in front of the protesters, floating in mid air, facing the police. Marinette turns to Kagami and winks at her.

“You will let them through,” Dragonbug’s words ring out, clear for everyone to hear. “Their presence here is lawful, they have caused no destruction of any kind, and I promise they won’t. Your actions would not stand before a court of law.We do not want to become enemies, do we? You have nothing to do here, and you will let them through, because this is what is right, and you will do it now.”

And with that, a second bolt of lightning strikes where the heroine’s figure stood, and with that, Dragonbug’s illusory body is gone. All around Kagami, Juleka, Rose and Luka start whispering to one another, and they are far from the only ones, from what she can tell, even the police seems stunned by what has just happened. Hesitantly, one protester takes a step forward, she is soon followed by another person, and more more still, until the entire front row of civilians has advanced. Reluctantly, a policeman lowers his shield, another one follows suit dejectedly, someone barks orders that aren’t followed.

Kagami checks her phone as she rejoins with Marinette —Alya practically had a breakdown, it would seem— and, when she is sure no one is paying too much mind to them, gives the other girl’s shoulder a squeeze and shakes her head with a smile. “Paris’ heroine saves the day again,” she whispers in Marinette’s ear. The chants have returned, stronger than ever, when they cross the Seine river on the Pont au Change. They are able to make things move, she is certain of that now. They have the power to make things move, to make them better. Soon, they come to a stop in front of the Palais de Justice’s gilded gates, and their voices only get louder.

“My name is Xavier Ramier,” a megaphoned voice emerges. “For almost a full year, Gabriel Agreste has made my life a living hell! I lost my job because of him, I nearly lost my flat too. He used me, he used my anger to try and hurt people I’d never wanted to hurt… And I know for a fact that I’m not the only one! He can’t get away with this just because he’s got the money and friends to get him out of trouble every time!”

“I’m Claudie Kanté!” Another voice exclaims. “How can we believe that Hawk Moth will be tried fairly when it’s been proven that he and his friends managed to buy the very people who are meant to apply the law and be impartial? This court’s silence, its inaction, is an insult to all of us! Do something! Fire your corrupt judges, replace them, since you have that power! Your silence isn’t helping anything”

“We want justice!” the people keep chanting.

In the middle of the crowd, as Kagami speaks these words too, as the megaphone is passed around, and more people stake their turn to speak, she is sure of one thing: she will be there with them all tomorrow, and for as long as they need to be there for things to be right. Next to her, Marinette has reached for her hand and intertwined their fingers.

Together, they will make a difference.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maalox also helps when you get teargassed. Don't take a hot shower after a protest, if you got exposed to teargas. Just don't, you'll thank me later. I just couldn't let that happen to the kids.
> 
> I'll see you next week, now that Real Life has gotten a little less hectic! Two more chapters and an epilogue… I hope you'll enjoy them! Thanks for sticking with me!


	19. Sleepover (1)

Kagami’s assessment of Marinette’s room all these months ago has proven itself to be correct: nothing will beat her rooftop terrace to watch the sunrise, and they’ll do exactly that tomorrow. Well, the Eiffel Tower is a strong contender for that title of “best spot to watch the sunrise and the sunset” and Montparnasse Tower too, in terms of sheer visibility. It is not all that matters, they would hardly feel like home the way 12 rue Gotlib does. Everything here feels so much like Marinette, the potted plants — the pink hydrangeas she’s gifted her girlfriend fit perfectly with the rest of them —the spool table, the garlands…

Even with the Place des Vosges nearby, the streets surrounding the bakery are rather calm, cars drive by every now and then but it’s more of a faint background noise than a true annoyance, people tend to be rather quiet around this part of the city in the evening. She couldn’t ask for a better place to be right now, nor could she imagine one.

There is no one to watch them as she stands perfectly still with her arms wide apart while Marinette’s scissors cut through some loose thread, and it would take a rather good pair of binoculars to spot Tikki zipping around them, clutching a needle in her hands. Paws. Fins. Stubs. Whatever she calls them. There’s no one to eavesdrop on them either, to comment on Marinette’s taste in music — or praise it, rather, she too likes Oscar Hancock, and his calmer songs are definitely suited for an early evening atmosphere —or to cut in on their conversation. And to think that the only reason they’re together tonight is thanks to Mother…

“I spoke my thoughts that aloud, didn’t I?” Kagami says when Tikki looks at her quizzically. “Well, as surprising as it might sound, it is true.”

It is also not as nice and friendly of Mother as she makes it sound. The truth is, Mother has decided to fly to Japan with her future French collaborators to finalise the paperwork that will kickstart her firm and celebrate its launch, and Kagami simply wasn’t invited to join them. Which makes sense, this could be one of the most important moments in Mother’s carrier, so having a few distractions as possible was a necessity. She had already booked a plane and hotel rooms in Sendai, and appointed a temporary fencing instructor during her absence. From the standpoint of organisation alone, there is nothing Kagami could complain about in good faith here. Mother knows exactly what she is doing.

Could she have told her right away that she wasn’t invited instead of getting her hopes up? Could she have done without the whole “It pains me more than it pains you to know that you will be missing the festivities” tirade when Tanabata was brought up? Could she have kept herself from actually writing two page worth of silly arbitrary rules she expects her daughter to follow for the next five days? Well, the answer to that question is obvious. Outside of maybe three of said rules, namely attending all her fencing classes, writing a detailed report of said classes and not forgetting to put her dirty clothes in the laundry chute door, Kagami simply has no interest in following any of what’s on that list, it is mostly authoritarian nonsense. She definitely wouldn’t be allowed to have a sleepover at her girlfriend’s place had she taken them seriously.

“But you won’t actually thank your mum, will you?” Tikki asks.

“I probably won’t.” Kagami almost shakes her head before she remembers the situation she is in, and stays entirely still. “Oh, she would get quite mad at me if she knew…”

“But she won’t, and it’s all that matters,” Marinette says. “I think I’m almost done here! I will take it off for you.”

Kagami does all she can to not be too flustered when Marinette unbuttons the shirt. Her best efforts are far from enough. It’s not like she’s naked underneath, she is wearing a tank top, but having Marinette’s hands so close to… But she tries not to let her thoughts wander in that direction. And if Marinette does notice, well, she can always call it a trick of the light. Marinette’s face is a little red as well.

“I’m, err, g-going downstairs to, um, add the finishing touches, yeah. Do you wanna come with?” Marinette finally stammers. “You don’t have to, I mean, I’ll knock on the skylight if mum and dad say dinner’s ready.

“I might stay on one of the deck chairs, then,” Kagami says.

“It’s really comfy, you’ll see!” Marinette smiles. She gives Kagami a quick goodbye peck on the cheek and adds, “I’ll be quick!”

And truly, few words define the deck chair as well as “comfy”. Kagami might almost fall asleep in there — she shouldn’t, at least not here, there is a mattress they will need to take from downstairs for that exact means later in the night — and she ends up getting lost looking at the cityscape. Many clichés about Paris are wrong, but not the one about the charm of its expanse of zinc. She is almost tempted to snap a few pictures, to change her phone’s home screen. It doesn’t take much for her to give in, the light is too… “Photogenic,” that’s the word Alya would use, to miss this opportunity. Once she is done, she lies back on the chair, lets the sun’s warmth touch her face and her thoughts wander.

“I believe Paris should still be peaceful when I return,” Mother had stated before leaving yesterday afternoon. “Otherwise, I would not have left you on your own.”

That, at least, was mostly grounded in reality. The protests from last month did not escalate into the riots some had feared they would. All things considered, it went rather well, or rather, without Marinette’s intervention, things could have gotten much worse. As it turns out, the police tends to refrain from gassing its fellow citizens when there’s a risk of having that tactic proven inefficient, costly and humiliating. Not that everyone was entirely satisfied with her tactics, the police hasn’t made any official statement but they are definitely no longer fans of Ladybug, while she’s heard Luka call Dragonbug’s appearances and small speeches “a good start but too consensual,” “still too protective of the system,” Alya’s sister had added after their first march together. Kagami herself isn’t sure what to think of that just yet. Marinette is doing a lot of reading these days.

In all cases, it would be wrong to call their protest a full success. That would be forgetting that it took a full week and a half after the corruption scandal emerged for new, theoretically less corrupt judges and prosecutors to be appointed in M. Agreste and Mme Sancœur’s cases, and that only six police officers were temporarily fired following the bribery scandal. At least Mayor Bourgeois is to be removed from his position soon, his trial is to open before the start of the coming school year. There have been no more demonstrations as massive as these since then, which is what Mother would call “unrest”. The few news they get from the Agreste investigation make no mention of corruption. For all Mother knows, the city is more peaceful than it has been in months. It certainly feels that way.

A knock coming from below disturbs her train of thoughts. Is it dinnertime already? It’s not even 7 p.m. yet. Kagami reluctantly gets up, and looks at the source of all the noise. Marinette is waving at her from below the skylight, and Tikki is flying around excitedly. It’s not about dinner, then. She is already finished. Kagami climbs down and lands on her girlfriend’s bed. Her bare feet sink into the mattress slightly. Why must everything be so comfortable at her place? Kagami almost wants to sleep there now, with Marinette. When the thought fully forms in her head, her cheeks heat up. Her stupid teenage lesbian brains, really…

She hurries down the small stairs. Marinette has gotten much better at keeping her room clean during her fashion design projects: no scraps of fabric anywhere, no bits of threads or patterns scattered across the floor, no oddly-placed needles either… She wonders if Tikki and the other swamis help keep their Guardian’s room neat and tidy. The truth is, Marinette must be trying to have the best working space she can get. It looks like she has bought a new desk blotter, probably to make sure she is working on an even flatter surface than that of her desk though that seems like overkill at this point. She truly wants everything to be perfect, doesn’t she?

“Here!” Marinette holds out the red shirt for her to put on on. “I think it should be okay.”

Her and her sense of humility… It’s not merely “okay”. It’s a perfect fit, and though Kagami wasn’t entirely sure about the standing collar at first, she is more than happy to have had her mind changed. Instinctively, she rolls up the sleeves slightly — flannel is her favourite fabric to wear, there’s no questioning that — and glances at her reflection in the mirror. It truly looks perfect on her. Next to her, Marinette’s reflection glances at her shyly. She’s still so self-conscious about other people appraising her work… Kagami turns around to look her girlfriend in the eye.

“You are amazing, you know that?” Kagami hums. “It is beautiful. Thank you!”

“No, thank you for modelling for me.” Marinette scratches her neck abashedly. “That shirt… It’s a small thing, really! Barely took me any time at all! And besides, you’re pretty now matter what.”

Kagami’s lips brush against Marinette’s, her arms wrap around the girl and she pulls her close. It doesn’t take long for Marinette to return the hug.

“Hey, what’s that for?” Marinette asks after a few seconds, and there’s fondness in her voice. “Not that I mind, on the contrary.”

“Just because,” Kagami replies. “I am happy to be here, with you. And I am also grateful for the shirt. Thank you for thinking I am pretty.”

Marinette gives a hum, tightens her embrace and lets her hands travel down to Kagami’s waist, sending pleasant shivers down her spine, and it is the only answer she needs. They stay in each other’s arms and Kagami wishes they never had to let go. She lets her eyes close and listens to Marinette breathe… Until M. Dupain’s voice rings out and her stomach growls. They try not to look too dishevelled and hurry downstairs to help. Based on what Kagami can see, they are having tomato and rocket salad and… Pizza, if she remembers what Marinette has told her. Yes, homemade pizza with a homemade dough. Her mouth is watering at the very thought, and the only reason Marinette must be immune to that is her living here all her life.

“Hello, Kagami!” M. Dupain greets her.

“Good evening, M. Dupain,” Kagami answers, and she hopes she doesn’t come off as too nervous, or cold, but unless Marinette’s father is faking the warmth with which he talks, this is going quite well so far. “Is there any way we can help?”

“You are our guest tonight! Please, just sit down!” M. Dupain shakes his head. “Though, if you insist, Marinette will show you where everything is, maybe the two of you could set the table?”

“I will, dad!” Marinette says from the other side of the kitchen. She has opened a cabinet and taken out glasses of water on one hand and an empty pitcher on the other. “The plates are right here,” she motions at a drawer with her left foot.

If they are having pizza, she ought to choose large plates. Those back at the flat with Mother are quite plain, pure white and flawless, they would fit perfectly in any proper restaurant. The Dupain-Cheng household’s plates look like they’ve been bought at a flea market, some are slightly chipped around the edges, some sport the same sort of faded geometrical designs, some look like they’ve been painted on by a child. A grin creeps its way on Kagami’s lips. She tries her best to find four similar-looking plates, and is rather successful at that. If the dishes are here and the glassware is all the way up, then…

“Middle drawer for the forks and knives,” Marinette tells her as she folds napkins neatly. “You can put the dishes on the table!”

Setting the table with someone else to help you takes less time, and feels much less miserable too. While M. Dupain makes the salad sauce and hums along to a song on the radios, Marinette makes absolutely sure that everything looks flawless, before she takes out an impressive table mat and a flat, circular plate on top of that . Definitely pizza-sized. There is a faint, metalling whirring coming from below. The bakery is closing its doors, the metal curtain is lowering, and it is the cue for M. Dupain to excuse himself and leave the kitchen. It’s half past seven, which means that Marinette’s parents have decided to finish their day half an hour earlier than is usually the case, just to have dinner with her.

“I did not seem too awkward, did I?” Kagami asks once M. Dupain is no longer within earshot. “I talked to them maybe twice, and it went rather well, but that was months ago.”

“You were perfect!” Marinette scoots closer to her. “I think they already like you, plus there was that whole tutoring thing…”

“Well, you did get great marks at your Brevet des Collèges exam,” Kagami nods.

“And it truly was thanks to your help!” Marinette says. “Anyway, you’re doing great so far, so there’s nothing for you to worry about, just so you know.”

“I will try not to,” Kagami nods. “Is there anything I can do to be useful in the meantime?”

“Sit back on the couch! Mum and dad should be done soon, and before you ask, they do not need our help. You really don’t have to be useful all the time to be allowed here, you know? You’re our guest, and you’re enough as you are!”

It was to be expected, the couch too is very comfortable, the perfect balance of softness and firmness. Kagami can’t help but notice that unlike her DVD collection, Marinette’s video game console hasn’t gathered dust, but since Marinette herself is mostly playing in her room… Does that mean her parents…? Oh, she’ll have to ask them for sure. It is a little late for that tonight, but they could maybe find the time to play someday, or perhaps invite a few friends over… Not right away, of course, but it’s a nice thought to entertain. Marinette adds a few finishing touches to the table and fills the pitcher with water before she joins Kagami. Or rather, slumps on the sofa next to her, that might be the more accurate image.

“I might fall asleep there,” Kagami confesses. “I am not even tired, but everything here is…” She stops and searches for the right word. “Homely?”

“Well, I’m glad you feel that way,” Marinette chuckles as she scoots closer. “And this is a sleepover, after all! Though you might want to stay awake for pizza.”

“I can already smell it,” Kagami says.

“Figuratively, or…?”

“Oh, I am being very literal!”

And just as the words leave Kagami’s mouth, Mme Cheng enters the room, followed closely by her husband, and the smell of tomato sauce, perfectly baked dough and herbs is in the air. Kagami gets up from the couch to greet Marinette’s mother, Marinette herself is back on her feet a few seconds later, just as M. Dupain sets the pizza on the table. There is a kind of almost religious silence for a few seconds as they all look at it, before Mme Cheng suggests they all take a seat but open the window beforehand to “let the room breathe” as she puts it. Kagami finds herself facing her, right next to M. Dupain, who has taken a pizza cutter.

It takes all the self-control Kagami possesses to wait until Mme Cheng starts eating to do the same, neither Marinette nor her father show that kind of restraint. Calling that pizza “divine” may sound overenthusiastic, but it truly is that way, very objectively, she might add. This is her Nectar. The ingredients blend perfectly, the dough is the exact right texture, it is nourishing but doesn’t feel heavy either. She must enjoy every second of it. Kagami soon notices that she is the only person to eat her slice with her fork and knife, Marinette is already having another helping.

“So, how was your day, dear?” Mme Cheng asks.

“My new fencing instructor is rather demanding,” Kagami replies truthfully. She quite likes it when Mme Cheng calls her that. “But I must say I quite enjoyed today’s lesson. It was exerting but I have learned a lot!”

How Mother got Mrs Arisugawa to fly to Paris for a few days, she has no idea, the two do not like each other very much, but the fact remains, she has flown all the way to France just for her. The woman is an excellent fencer, perhaps even as good as Mother, and unlike Mother, she is a brilliant teacher who takes the time to explain what Kagami has done wrong and how to improve, she even congratulates her when she is successful. Mrs Arisugawa has been Japan’s national team’s fencing captain during the 2008 and 2016 Olympics, and it shows. Kagami is almost certain she used to be in that position back in middle school and high school, she simply knows how to talk to younger fencers without it feeling condescending. It’s a shame she’ll have to return to Japan eventually.

“And I’m guessing you will have some kind of agreement with the lycée so that you can dedicate more time to fencing in September,” M. Dupain says.

“I will!” Kagami nods. “I already had that sort of arrangement back in Japan, so hopefully this should not be too different. Is that something you did yourself, M. Dupain?”

“Dad almost became a pro rugby player,” Marinette chimes in.

“That was a long time ago,” M. Dupain blushes. “And besides, I found out I liked baking better, so I stopped playing rugby halfway through my last year of lycée. I’m still in an amateur club, but I wasn’t nearly as good as you are at your own sport.”

“Marinette has shown us videos from that national competition that took place back in May,” Mme Cheng adds. “Really impressive! I did not know much about sabre fencing, but I could tell you earned that victory. You truly are a professional fencer!”

“I… Thank you,” Kagami feels the tip of her ears turn red. “Well, that would make you professional bakers!”

“We used to love baking competitions when we were younger,” Mme Cheng smiles. “But we lost interest after some time, and so we stopped.”

“And besides, we don’t want our bakery to be known as the winner of such and such grand prix,” M. Dupain continues. “Not to say that we are amateurs, but we are happy with the way our bakery is now.”

“Your pizza is delicious too,” Kagami says. “Do you follow a specific recipe?”

Marinette mouthes the words “family recipe” and indeed, M. Dupain tells her that he can’t tell her how it’s made, at least not yet. The meal continues, they chat about the museum the two girls have visited — the musée Carnavalet was like getting inside a time machine, each room felt exactly like the time period it was supposed to represent — and the bakery. All three Dupain-Chengs have different favourite regulars, as it turns out. It sounds like an exhausting job, working behind the bakery’s counter, no wonder M. Dupain and Mme Cheng usually go to bed early. Before they know it, the pizza plate is empty.

After that, they end up discussing the incoming school year, the lycée they’ll both be going to; Carnot’s reputation is well-earned, the optional courses it offers are numerous. Marinette will take an extra social sciences class alongside English and Spanish. Kagami almost wants to ask “why not pick Chinese as well? That would make for easy, free good marks” but before she can word that question, Mme Cheng passes her the salad bowl — if the bakery every fails, which seems unlikely, Marinette’s parents could become chefs — and asks her what courses she has chosen.

“I will stick to maths and English, my future schedule won’t allow me to take any more classes,” she replies. Picking Japanese as well would be a waste of her time. Come to think of it, it may be the reason Marinette hasn’t chosen Mandarin as well as her other languages

“Even with all of that, you two should still have a little free time to help each other with homework, yes?” Mme Cheng inquires. “We haven’t thanked you enough for all you’ve done to help Marinette.”

“Please, it was nothing,” Kagami blushes. “And of course, I will continue helping Marinette.”

Mme Cheng gives her a knowing but warm smile.

“Even if we don’t end up in the same class, the general curriculum is the same for everyone,” Marinette adds. “So we’ll definitely find ways to help each other out!”

“I’m glad to hear that!” M. Dupain exclaims cheerfully.

The meal ends with a delicious apricot charlotte and a discussion revolving around what they will be doing tomorrow — a trip to the library for Kagami, while Marinette will be hanging out with the Couffaine sibling’s to design a logo for their newest band — and by the time they are done clearing the table, Kagami can safely say this is the best dinner she’s had in years. Marinette’s parents excuse themselves for the rest of the evening. After a short trip to the bathroom — Marinette’s toothbrush is a hot pink, just like her bathrobe and towels — the two girls are back in Marinette’s room. It’s a little after 8:30 p.m., she notices when she checks her phone, no new messages from Mother, who must be sleeping by now. Hopefully she had a good time in Sendai without her. She has gotten a text from Adrien. It’s not much, just a picture of his timetable with the words “fencing classes” circled in red.

“Did he send it to you too?” She turns to Marinette.

“Yeah,” comes Marinette’s answer. Under her breath, she mumbles something about English public schools that doesn’t sound all that nice. “At least he has some company that might prevent him from turning into his cousin’s double, and he won’t be stuck with him all the time.”

“Well, it looks like his aunt has picked an interesting school for him,” Kagami says. It came as no surprise that Amélie Graham de Vanily obtained Adrien’s legal guardianship, really and while anything at this point couldn’t have been worse than his father. Marinette isn’t entirely sold on that. “Having that… Company is doing him good.”

“Speaking of which… Do you mind us having some of that company really soon? I mean it can always wait until tomorrow, so it’s your choice, really.” And Marinette truly looks like she doesn’t mind.

“You do what you have to do,” Kagami says. “Do you want me to look away while you do it, or…”

“You can watch,” Marinette shakes her head. “I won’t be doing anything dangerous tonight.”

“At least I’ll keep my eyes closed so that where you are keeping the box stays a secret,” Kagami suggests.

“Alright… Well, here we go!”

It certainly will make her less of a liability if things go sour one day. She does just as she’d promised and puts her hand over her eyes. Marinette and stealth may have sounded like antithetical notions to her a few months back, but Kagami knows better now. There are a few noises, though they are so faint she can’t tell where they’re coming from. After a grand total of maybe ten seconds that feel like much more than that, Marinette’s footsteps become audible again, there’s the sound of something being set on the table and Kagami knows she can look again. The Miracle Box has been set on Marinette’s desk, it opens slowly, drawer after drawer. Except for the Ladybug Earrings and the Black Cat Ring, every Miraculous in this box is in its rightful place.

Marinette has Master Fu’s tablet in her lap alongside a rather thick notepad while a biscuits tin sits right next to the octogonal box. Tikki stands on the young Guardian’s shoulder. Slowly, Marinette touches one of the jewels and then takes it in her hand. Almost immediately, a green flash comes from it, a kwami rises from her palm and start flying around. Kagami comes a little closer — still at a safe distance to ensure she won’t be disturbing that little ritual — and watches as Marinette and the turtle kwami have a small conversation, with Tikki chiming in every now and then. It ends with Wayzz — she remembers the name now — taking a biscuit from the tin, swallowing it in one go and returning inside their bracelet while Marinette checks the tablet, and writes a few notes.

That small ritual continues with the rest of the kwamis, some are more difficult than others, the ox and tiger kwamis aren’t very cooperative and reluctantly partake in anything at all, outside of eating their biscuit, that is, whereas Longg beams at Kagami’s sight and has to be stopped from bursting into a tirade that would certainly have been very passionate. There are two Miraculouses Marinette simply doesn’t touch. Instead, she skims through her notes and closes the Miracle Box with a deep sigh.

“No Peacock and Butterfly brooches tonight?” Kagami inquires.

“No, I don’t… Things always end poorly with these two,” Marinette says. “It’d ruin the mood for tonight, too. At least Nooroo just wallows, which isn’t a danger to other people, I guess. Duusu… Duusu is complicated. Sometimes they simply don’t come out of their Miraculouses, sometimes they do that and that rarely ends well, they always find new tricks to play on me.”

“Tricks?”

“Come here.” Marinette lifts her desk blotter, unveiling small burn marks on the desk. “That is from a week ago, the Peacock brooch got boiling hot when I touched it and I can’t understand how Duusu does that. Kwamis can’t be autonomous for more than a few minutes if you don’t wear their Miraculous, and their energy tends to dwindle with time. I haven’t given them anything to eat since I’ve come across them, they refused my food, and I haven’t worn the Miraculous either.”

“So you thing they are getting some other source of energy from… somewhere,” Kagami frowns.

“And I can’t figure out what that is,” Marinette slumps back in her chair. “I’ve been making progress with my own spell book, though, but that’s still a black spot. I haven’t found anything in the original either. Guess I’ll just… Keep trying. But not tonight, I had you waiting for much too long! I’ll put back the box back to its place and then we’ll do… I don’t know…”

“Do you want to learn a little about sabre fencing?” Kagami offers. “Perhaps not in your room, but I could teach you, if you want…”

That would be a good way to lighten the mood, and though it might require a bit of breaking and entering, surely it would be worth it; if Marinette ever decides to become a professional thief, the chances of her getting caught would be slim. It wouldn’t be a complex lesson, nothing too physical, only the basics. The truth is, Dragonbug’s stance is quite horrendous, the ways she grips the hilt of her sword is all wrong. That outing would benefit them both, really.

Marinette seems to share her mind on the matter. Wordlessly, she takes out the Dragon Miraculous out of its box and throws it at her. It’s an easy catch.

“I know where all the security cameras are at Françoise Dupont,” Marinette grins. “And I know where the fencing gear is hidden. We just need to be sneaky about it, but that should be manageable.”

“I never asked, but you must have techniques to go unnoticed, yes? I do not see myself transforming and jumping off your balcony.”

“I’ll show you in a minute! Just let me put the box right where it belong and we’ll get going!”

Oh, her girlfriend’s enthusiasm is contagious. This sleepover might have gone from great to perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't happy with the original chapter so I just… Rewrote it and made it a two-parter! So, just one more chapter and an epilogue and it'll be over… 
> 
> Thanks for sticking with me for so long, thank you so much for your kind reviews, they always mean a lot to me.
> 
> I'll see you soon!


	20. Sleepover (2)

Jumping from rooftop to rooftop is paradoxically more discreet than flying above the city, and if they truly want to sneak out, it seems like the better option. It is much more manageable than turning herself into thin air, for sure, more comfortable. She can safely call herself a good runner, and so far, she hasn’t slipped off once. Her abilities are enhanced by kwami magic, or so she’s been told, but it doesn’t take away from her being in control. Few people ever get to see Paris the way she does right now. Window-cleaners, maybe, but outside of them… It truly is a sight to behold, the sun setting lazily, the dusk sky’s fiery reflection in the Seine, and the pleasant evening breeze perfects this picture of tranquility.

And yet, Ryuko can’t set her anxiousness aside as she leaps off a zinc roof to land on another noiselessly. This should be alright, it was a fine jump, and yet… She cannot know for sure until she asks. And if she doesn’t get any answer…

“Are you still there?”

“Of course!” comes the small voice right above her head. “Please, don’t worry about me, you’re perfect!”

“If you say so…” Ryuko shoulders slump a little. “So my jumping like that is fine.”

“I’ll tell you if it’s not! Say, what shampoo do you use?” Multimouse asks. “I might just buy it too. Your hair is comfortable and it smells really nice.”

It’s a compliment that would usually make her blush, but it’s quite weird to receive under these circumstances. Then again, this entire situation is bizarre. She might be the first human being in the history of their species to have a shrunk-down girlfriend nested in her hair, and there are no social conventions, no etiquette for that just yet. “Well, thank you, I suppose… But comfortable? What does that mean?”

“Pigeons don’t like when you climb on them.” Multimouse sounds almost mortified. “Which is too bad ‘cause they’d make for excellent steeds.”

Ryuko almost wants to shake her head in amusement before she remembers not to. She can tolerate that kind of harmless oddity, and besides, it should turn out to have been all worth it. Her first time actual teaching rather than being taught, sharing what she’s been learning with someone dear to her… Before they get to do that, they will need to sneak inside a place that is meant to be closed and empty during the holidays. It almost seems like a selfish way to use their powers, but then again, Marinette has an entire battery of apps to keep her updated on everything going on in the city, if they need to go and help, they will. Not that they’ve needed to since July.

Now, if only she could spot that school from up there… But no such luck, all these roofs look the same to her, it’s not like she’s had an entire year to learn to appreciate the differences. Without Ladybug to guide her, there’s no way she can — Except that isn’t quite right. Using the Eiffel Tower and the Seine as points of reference… She might just know a proper route, and if she makes a mistake, she trusts Multimouse with correcting her. Not that she should have to. As it turns out, Ryuko’s estimates are correct, and though she is certain there are a few shortcuts she has missed, she is rather proud of herself.

They make it to to Françoise Dupont in a grand total of three minutes without having drawn attention to themselves, and Multimouse gives Ryuko a congratulatory thumbs up as she returns to a normal human size. The two of them stay crouched in the shadow of a chimney, overlooking the school. The building’s lights are off, and as far Ryuko can tell, there is nobody there. What they are to do is absolutely illegal. And a little exciting, she has to say. This is the Grand Paris’s rooftop all over again… Well, not entirely. Her feelings are no longer muddled, she has stopped lying to herself.

“Security is nothing special, but there are a few cameras and motion detectors in the entrance hall and in some of the hallways,” Multimouse tells her as they get up. “One of them covers a section of the courtyard we better avoid. If you will just follow me… It should be a piece of cake.”

“Lead the way,” Ryuko nods.

It’s nothing complicated, really, but had her girlfriend not pointed out the place of each of these devices, she wouldn’t have noticed most of them and set a few off. The school’s courtyard feels smaller than she remembered it to be. The darkness certainly doesn’t help. Now, if she is to teach Marinette a thing or two about sabre fencing, that won’t do. Is there a switch somewhere they could use, or… She reverts her transformation and glances at Multimouse. Or rather, at the empty space where Multimouse was standing seconds ago. Something nudges at her left trainer.

“Part of me will be turning on the light while some other will unlock that big cupboard where the fencing gear is kept, in the locker room,” comes the diminutive heroine’s voice, barely louder than a whisper. “We shouldn’t be long.”

“I will wait in the locker room, then,” Kagami nods. She crouches down and tries to look Multimouse in the eye? “May I offer you, err, one of you, another ride?”

“My hero!” Multimouse exclaims dramatically. “Well, who am I to refuse! There are no cameras where we’ll be going so don’t worry about it! As far as I know, they haven’t hired security either, it should be alright.”

And still, walking down an empty corridor while using her phone as a torch turns out to be a slightly eerier experience than she had hoped it to, and every time the wooden floor creaks, she freezes. They really shouldn’t be there… And it makes it all the more thrilling. And weirder, with Multimouse sitting on her shoulder. She proves herself to be very useful. Thanks to her, the metallic cupboard’s lock is dealt with in a matter of seconds, Kagami puts it on a bench where she knows she won’t forget it. She finds a few good lamés and fencing masks, none quite as good as her own gear, but they will do the trick for tonight, and, if this goes well, until the end of the month.

The swords are decent, though the blades should be changed before the start of next school year, she inspects each sabre carefully to find the one that would fit Marinette’s hand the most. Nothing but the best for her new pupil… M. D’Argencourt really ought to upgrade the gear he provides his students with. It would be much simpler if they both had custom-made sabres, that is for certain, and in a way, the Dragon Miraculous’s sword is just that. It would be much too dangerous to use for practice, The sudden change of light startles Kagami and for a second, her instincts scream at her to duck or hide in a locker.

Not that she should, she soon realises, Multimouse hasn’t gone anywhere. It is all part of Marinette’s plan. The girl truly knows every single detail there is to know about her old collège, doesn’t she? Chances are, she has already started exploring their new lycée to look for easy exits and places to transform without drawing attention to herself. Superhero logic to avoid more stressful situations later, if she had to make a wild guess. Does she check every single place she goes to, or try to look up maps and plans ahead of her every trip? She never speaks about that, but that can’t be relaxing.

Kagami shakes these thoughts aside and hurries to the well-lit courtyard. In a flash, Multimouse is back together again, and turns into a very disheveled girl with a satisfied smile.

“So… Where do we start? Do we gear up and start fencing? En garde!”

“Not quite,” Kagami replies. “I thought we could go back to the very basics tonight. I do not want to harm you by accident.” Besides, it’s not like either of them has the proper shoes to do anything too demanding, at least for tonight.

“That’s fair,” Marinette nods. “Well, teach me, professor Kagami!”

And so, the first lesson of the evening is on how to hold one’s sabre properly without getting a sprained thumb or looking like a monkey with a stick. Marinette’s habit of waving around Dragonbug’s sword like a club has come with that dreadful, much too tight grip. Fortunately, they manage to remedy to that fairly quickly. The bird analogy she’s heard a thousand times before — “do not grip it too hard so that you won’t rush it, but not too loosely or it’ll fly away” — ends up being quite useful. Marinette picks up the proper finger position in a matter of seconds. Being Ladybug must come with good observation skills. As soon as that basic out of the way, they move to the next lesson.

“Are you always that fast a learner?” Kagami can’t help but ask when Marinette mirrors her en garde pose almost perfectly.

“It depends, really!” Marinette says. “I don’t think I’d be learning this quickly with anyone else!”

“Really?” Kagami raises her eyebrows.

“I think so, yeah! As for more theoretical things… Well, you’ve seen how poorly I used to do in school. Without you, I’d have flunked it completely.”

“This is not true. You were quite mediocre, yes, but not terrible, or hopeless. I still think you would have passed all your classes still, even with your marks.”

“Hadn’t heard that Kagami bluntness in quite some time.” Marinette chuckles.

“Only when you speak nonsense about yourself,” Kagami states. “You should turn your wrist slightly more to the left, your footing is excellent, but that wrist… Your guard is supposed to allow for you to protect yourself as well as to ready your attacks, and… You are only really shielding your left shoulder right now.”

“So I should be doing it like that?”

“Much better already.”

They repeat that simple exercise for a few more minutes, and when it becomes obvious that Marinette has fully assimilated that technique, Kagami is proud of her student, and not entirely dissatisfied with her own skills as a teacher. Now they can continue with a more interesting exercise, which turns out to be a lot more complicated for her girlfriend than expected. When Marinette tries to follow Kagami’s example, her footwork _is_ good, her back is slightly stiff but she does not seem too nervous, and her general posture is surprisingly adequate for a beginner. And yet…

“It’s really weird, staying so still like that, and only having short bursts of action… I get it, but it’s going to take some time getting used to. And I feel like I’m not quite there yet.”

“Which is exactly why we should continue practising your lunge for a little while,” Kagami says. “Unless you want to stop? It does not have to be a full-blown lesson, if you wish to do something else.”

“No, no, we should continue! I want to get it right before the end of the evening! It’s not everyday you get to have a one-on-one lesson like that.”

Marinette’s determination is sincere, and though it takes quite a few failed attempts, an involuntarily dropped sabre and a fair bit of Kagami correcting the placement of her arms and shoulders, they eventually get there, a proper lunge. They practice side by side, with their fencing masks on and enough distance between them to avoid any accidental stabbing, until Marinette’s movements are not only correct but confident, no longer an imitation of Kagami’s but distinctly her own. If she keeps making progress this quickly, they might start duelling seriously by the winter holiday.

“Hey,” Marinette huffs as she takes off her fencing mask. “Have you considering becoming a fencing instructor someday? You’re good, really! And I’m not just saying that to please you!”

“Well, thank you,” Kagami says awkwardly, mirroring the other girl’s action. The evening air is slightly fresher now, and she can’t say she minds. “At first, I thought I would end up doing whatever was expected… No, what my parents expected me to do, and be whatever they wanted me to be, someone worthy of my family name and of its legacy in the world of fencing, and then a wife to some ancient family type and a mother to his child, I suppose. Not that I liked that prospect, but I thought I would grow up into fully accepting that.”

“That’s bullshit,” Marinette blurts.

“Yes,” Kagami laughs. “Yes, it truly is bullshit, and I am angry it took me so long to understand that. So… My own plans are still a little vague. I know I will become an Olympic fencer, but not for their sake, and I will get as far away from my parents as possible as soon as I get a good-enough wage, and then, I won’t have to hide myself anymore or to worry about my chances at marriage, or anything else. As for what I will do by the end of my fencing career… I thought being in school might help me find the beginning of an answer to that. You?”

“Well, the whole hero thing, I’m not giving up on,” Marinette replies. “I just think I’ll do it differently since there’s no big magical monster for me to defeat, at least for now. Maybe… I could help ordinary people? And wherever Ladybug appears, journalists usually follow, so I could use my image to… It’s still a bit fuzzy in my head but you get what I mean? I still have a lot to learn before I can do really big things, but starting small can’t hurt, right? Better than not starting at all. And there’s also this whole Guardian thing I am still figuring out? My own spell book is coming along nicely, so…”

“I would be happy to help you with either of these… things,” Kagami nods. “If you want me to, of course.”

Though she doesn’t see how she could be of any use with “this whole Guardian thing” for the time being, she could definitely see herself cleaning the Seine using the Dragon Miraculous’s power, perhaps… But Marinette must have thought about all of that already. If they can use the kwamis’ magic for better purposes than fighting, then they really should try. Knowing her girlfriend, she must have a few ideas written down somewhere, waiting to be acted on.

“Of course I do! Outside of that… ” Marinette takes a seat on one of the nearby benches. “Outside of that, school will be more of a formality for me than anything else, even though I’d really like to study with you. I know I still want to make a living being a fashion designer, and I’ve received two internship offers from big names in the industry a few weeks ago, I haven’t given a final answer… I don’t mean to sound blasé, school is important and all, lots of things to learn, but I’m not like Alya who wants to go to that journalism school after her baccalauréat, for one, the places I want to go won’t require my being top of my class.

“So, the plan is, I get through school, work for other people for a while and then settle on my own, professionally speaking… Maybe still in Paris, maybe somewhere else, I haven’t decided yet. I used to want to have three children and hamsters, I am not entirely sure about that anymore, hamsters can get really noisy, you know! I’d say I have a pretty clear idea of where it’ll be going. If not for you and my friends, I wish I could skip that first step entirely and dedicate myself entirely to fashion design and heroing.”

That’s impressive, and not at all the answer Kagami had expected… But now would the the perfect moment to ask the question that has been on the back of her mind all evening long. Even better, she could make it a piece of advice.

“So, why not take Chinese? As an optional course, that is. It should be easy for you, no? I believe wasting your time but still getting great marks effortlessly could be a good strategy, if not a very gratifying one.”

“Mum said she’d teach me herself and she’s stayed true to her words so far,” Marinette answers, and there’s tension in her tone that wasn’t there seconds before. “I’d be starting from scratch if I took the class in September, and you’ll find out that learning any language in France is pretty awful… Don’t expect to make any substantial progress in that area. I’d get pretty poor marks, actually, we’re all meant to acquire the same skills at the same time, we’d be like thirty in the same class and how can you expect individual students to get anywhere? Even if I got decent marks, which I won’t, what would be the point?”

She looks down at her shoes with a forced smile, and Kagami isn’t sure what to say.

“I don’t actually speak or read Mandarin. Or Shanghainese, for that matter, I understand a few things now thanks to my app, but… I think my parents were scared I wouldn’t speak French well if I had another language spoken to me at the same time, or that there’d be problems at school, and so, we kept things _French_ , as they said… whatever that means. Well, I can’t say it didn’t pay off, still got called names but I sure can speak French really well, huh?”

“So you never…”

“Celebrated festivals, or heard much about the part of my family that lives in Shanghai, or even knew I had a Chinese name? No.” Marinette’s voice shakes. “Not until last October. I mean I get why they did what they did, I just wish they… Hadn’t done it. And still, _everyone_ assumes that since my name is Cheng I’m well-versed in all things Chinese!”

“I am sorry I brought it up…” Kagami whispers, and she sits next to her girlfriend on the bench. “I did not mean to upset you. I am sorry I made that assumption in the first place, it was wrong of me.”

This was meant to be a fun night, not _this_ and she was stupid enough to ask a question when she really shouldn’t ha—

“I know, it’s okay, you were curious about it, I gave you an answer,” Marinette mumbles. At last, she stops staring at the ground and looks up at Kagami with a softer expression. “I’m not mad at you. You couldn’t have known, I never told you, so it’s only fair you asked. I don’t like talking about it, that’s all. I’m sorry I got gloomy, it's just something I've got to work through on my own.”

“Alright.” Kagami hesitantly reaches for Marinette’s hand. She doesn’t bother hiding her relief when the other girl takes it. “Do you want to continue? Or we could just leave it to that for tonight.”

“It can’t be this late,” Marinette says. “And while I’m not exactly brimming with energy, still got plenty of it to spare. How about ten more minutes, maybe fifteen? We can leave when it’s too dark.”

“Then we will move to something other than lunges,” Kagami offers as she gets up, helping Marinette to her feet. “Unless you still want to practice those?”

“I’m used to using my yo-yo as a shield, but I hate shifting between elemental states, and dodging all the time isn’t always possible.”

“Parries it is, then!”

Ladybug moves a lot whenever she fights, a lot of jumping around is usually involved, cartwheels and somersaults too. It shouldn’t be a surprise that even after they’ve rehearsed a simple _tierce_ — which isn’t that different from an ordinary _en garde_ pose — Marinette’s reflexes get the better of her the first time they give it a go. Before Kagami’s sabre can actually reach her or her sword, Marinette immediately rolls to the side and jumps right back to her feet. It takes two tries before Marinette manages to stay mostly still, and a few more before she manages a rather weak parry. This might take more work than they had anticipated.

“I’m not good at this, am I?” Marinette grumbles.

“You will be, just not right away,” Kagami replies. “And you are getting better already.”

“Honest?”

“With you? Always.”

When they go back to the locker room together and put their borrowed fencing gear right where they found it, Kagami feels the exhaustion settle in. It has been a truly busy day for the both of them, hasn’t it, between the visit at the museum, Marinette making her a new shirt, her own lesson with Mrs. Arisugawa and now this, not counting Marinette’s guardian duties and the meal with… It’s a bit dizzying when she stops and thinks about it. They (mostly Multi…mouse? Mice?) cover their tracks and leave the way they came in, making sure to avoid any unwanted attention.

“Say, do you wanna go someplace else?” Multimouse yawns. “It’s not even midnight yet.”

“We do have to get up early for sunrise,” Ryuko shakes her head, and stifles a yawn of her own. “Say, do you want to have lunch with me tomorrow? There should be Tanabata food and… Yeah. Or maybe you have something planned for…”

“I’ll be there at half past twelve!” Multimouse grins. “I’ll bring fresh bread, if you want!”

* * *

They take turns to shower and change into their night clothes, or rather, Marinette insists that she’ll go last because “I want to make sure you still get hot water, yes I swear I don’t mind”. M. Dupain and Mme Cheng have turned the lights off everywhere else, the flat is peacefully silent, as are the street and the Place des Vosges. Not using all the hot water is an exercise in self-restraint, the Dupain-Chengs have an impressive collection of soaps and their towels are quite fluffy, and she might just fall asleep there. As soon as she tiptoes out of the bathroom, tiptoes inside. For a little while, Kagami allows herself to doze off on the chaise longue, until Marinette’s head pokes out of the trapdoor and stirs her awake.

She has obviously made her pyjamas herself, a cute tank top and assorted shorts, perfect for the August weather, it looks very nice on her. Kagami wishes she could say the same about her own outfit. Not that she hates her t-shirt and baggy cotton trousers, these are a clear improvement over her nightgown, but it doesn’t feel very personal. That’s one more thing she’ll commission her girlfriend, she decides, because there’s no way she’s making her clothes all the time for free, her work is worth more than thanks, hugs and kisses. Maybe another potted plant would be a nice way to pay her back, or something else… She’ll figure it out. When she isn’t so sleepy, that is.

“Do you want to do something else,” she still asks. “Watch a film or something?”

“Not tonight,” Marinette answers, rubbing her eyes. “We should probably go to sleep and… I knew I’d forgotten something.” She slaps a hand on her brow. “Ugh, there’s no way I won’t wake up my parents while dragging that mattress.”

“The chaise longue is big enough for me,” Kagami says. “And there is that blanket under it. I will be fine.”

“For an hour maybe, but not the whole night,” Marinette retorts. “And fencing with an achy back can’t be good!”

“I could help you with the mattress, then.” If she is able to get up from the chaise longue at all, that is. She shouldn’t make wild offers like that.

“Or… Or there’s enough room in my bed for the two of us, if you want. I promise I won’t be a blanket hog.” Marinette has never look this flushed or awkward, and that’s saying a lot. She isn’t the only one blushing. In a small voice, she adds, “Idon’twanttopressureyouintoosayingyessoIunderstandifyou’dratherchoosethemattress.”

“Uh…” Kagami’s brain is racing as much as her sleepiness will allow her to. “I… That would be… That could be an option, too, one that I… Yes. We could definitely do that. We should definitely do that. It would just be falling asleep and waking up together, so…”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.”

“We are much too tired to be having an intelligent conversation, aren’t we?”

“I think so,” Marinette laughs. More softly, she adds, “Let’s just go to bed.”

Though it truly is a very comfortable bed and Marinette’s pillows are just the right texture and shape, it is a little awkward for the first few minutes, the two stare at the ceiling, mindful not to touch each other or look at each other too much. A kind of tension hangs in the air, and makes Kagami feel more awake than she’s been in the last half hour or so, the butterfly dancing in her stomach make it impossible for her to close her eyes. Not that it should be difficult for her, She is safe here, and Marinette won’t ever hurt her. There is nothing here for her to be apprehensive about, and she isn’t doing anything wrong lying next to her girlfriend, it’s not like they haven’t been close like that before, but this feels… different.

She almost yelps when Marinette’s arm touches hers lightly, and all but jumps out of bed at that before she manages to calm herself down.

“Would it be okay if I came a little closer to you?” Marinette whispers.

“Y-yeah.” It would be a lot more than just “okay”.

She manages to stay silent as Marinette takes her hand and scoots closer to her before turning her back to her, and for a moment, their ankles touch, and their arms, and Kagami’s heart is stuck in her throat. Her body must have betrayed her nervousness, and not a second later, Marinette is moving away again and—

Kagami intertwines their fingers and closes the distance between the two of them. “I love you,” she whispers in the crook of Marinette’s neck as her palm rest on her girlfriend’s stomach. “I really do. Thank you for everything tonight, I didn’t know what to expect but I knew it would be great. I am happy I came.”

“I’m happy you are here,” Marinette hums. “I love you too.”

Sleep claims Kagami in a matter of seconds.

It’s still dark outside when she wakes up to the sight of her girlfriend crouched next to her with a sleepy smile and messy hair. Wordlessly, Kagami rubs her bleary eyes, takes Marinette’s outstretched hand and lets her help her up. She stayed true to their promise, didn’t she? The skylight lets the summer breeze blow on their skin. The horizon is clear, outside of a few clouds and the usual vapour trails; they’re probably not the only ones awake, but here and now, it certainly feels like it. They lie down in the deck chairs and look up at skyline. Marinette still hasn’t let go of her hand.

She won’t let go either. Slowly, the dark blue sky lightens up, the clouds are dusted with a soft pink hue as the rooftops take a golden sheen. The city comes alive little by little, birds start singing, accompanied soon after by the distant sounds of shutters being opened and the occasional lorry driving by. This truly is the best spot to watch the sun rise in all of Paris. Kagami steals a glance at the girl by her side and can't help but smile. If she could kiss all of her freckles, she would. Marinette truly is the most beautiful girl she has ever met.

M. Dupain and Mme Cheng are already down at the bakery when Kagami suggests they go get breakfast, but they have left freshly-baked croissants and a baguette on the table. Marinette is a jam connoisseur, she finds out, and she likes her first coffee of the day with lots of milk and sugar. The Dupain-Cheng household has an impressive collection of teas, and all these choices are a little overwhelming for Kagami to make. She follows Marinette’s advice and settles for a simple cup of oolong. They’re not fully awake, the two of them, still in their pyjamas, sporting bedheads and lazing around the breakfast table. Kagami wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be seeing you next week for the epilogue!


	21. Stand by me

Just one last check to make sure that she is good and ready to go. Her keys are in her jacket, alongside her phone — fully charged, of course — and her wallet is in her satchel alongside her pencil case and the rest of her school things, including a ridiculous number of empty folders for all the paperwork she is expecting to have thrown at her. Her wristwatch is right where it should be, 7:23 a.m., it reads, which means she is right on schedule so far. She’s even found the time to water her new potted Pothos plant. Kagami lets out a slight sigh. It’s crucial that she makes a good first impression, just a normal girl with a normal life who happens to do fencing at a professional level and shares her name with that of a business empire.

Heh.

Luckily enough, most of her future classmate shouldn’t be aware of that last part unless they really care about cookers, robotic systems for surgery and self-driving cars worth years of their parents’ salaries. Chances are, a few may remember her as “Adrien Agreste’s good friend” and that’s about it but they can’t be the majority. So, if she can avoid making herself known as “that Japanese girl covered in bread crumbs” on her first day, that would be great. Once glance at her reflection in her mirror tells her that she’s looking incredibly ordinary and clean. Which she already suspected, but that certainty is comforting.

As stupid as it may sound, she is happy with her choice in clothes today. Her new black shirt is perfect, thanks to its creator, and fits nicely with her jeans and shoes; it is a vast improvement over that awful school uniform, for sure. No more crests anywhere. Just one thing is missing… She puts her hand in the small gap between her Monet waterlilies poster and her bedroom’s wall and lets it slide until she finally finds what she was looking for. She will have to find another hiding place at the end of the week. For the time being, it does its job just fine, and all it took was a bit of masking tape.

The dragon pendant completes her outfit nicely, Kagami notes as she puts it on in front of the bathroom mirror. It looks just like any regular necklace when it isn’t activated. She has to say, she is quite satisfied with her fashion sense now that she’s actual got one that isn’t “whatever Mother believes is best”. Her current style may not be very original, but at least it’s been her choice all the way through. She does her makeup in a matter of seconds and hurries out of the bathroom. If she is quick enough, she might just avoid the usual remarks, all she needs to do is —

“Kagami, you are going to be late!” Mother’s voice comes from her bedroom.

_Shit_.

“I will hurry, Mother!” she replies as she gets back to her room. When she walks out again, she has her jacket on and her satchel hanging from her shoulder. “I will tell you how it all went during my lunch break!”

“I should hope so! Remember, your classes are—”

“… at the Sorbonne today, yes, I have not forgotten!”

Fencing with adult opponents… That’s an enthusing prospect, M. D’Argencourt has finally accepted the university’s offer. This should mean they will practice in a room suited for what they’re doing instead of a courtyard, no matter how agreeable the outdoors may be. This won’t be the case everyday, she will still need to go to Françoise Dupont every other day to practice with opponents her age, no matter how uninteresting that may get.

“Are you wearing your ring?”

“Yes,” Kagami lies as she ties her shoelaces. Well, half-lies. The signet ring is in her bag, near the small lychee bag for Longg, she simply won’t put the tacky thing on for as long as she can help it.

“Are you certain you do not want to take the car? I should have no use for it myself, for the next half hour at least, the route has already been recorded.”

“I should be fine. Have a good day, Mother!”

She doesn’t wait for an answer, closes the door behind her and heads calmly down the stairs. She has no need for yet another tirade about honour and prestige or words of “encouragement” from a coffin-seller who got away with it scot-free and probably laughs about it with her friends the Poulaincks while Mme Agreste’s corpse continues to puzzle scientists all around the world. Just two more years, and she’ll only have to see her during important championships, perhaps the Olympics.

But for know, she needs to think about more trivial matters: where on earth are these keys… In her jacket, right. Kagami unlocks her bicycle from its hoop and puts the satchel in the front basket. That’s the best early birthday present she could have asked (or rather begged) for, worth every second of convincing Mother. And now comes the part she hates, pushing the front door open with one hand and manoeuvring her bike with the other. She manages not to scrap too much paint this once.

It’s a little windy outside, which might make breaking her record time (seven minutes and fifty-two seconds) to get from the flat to the lycée Carnot a little difficult. Still, she won’t know if she doesn’t try. She puts her foot on the pedal and starts her watch’s chronometer. There are safer things than riding a bicycle to school, but now that André Bourgeois has been forced to step down from his position as Paris’s mayor, municipal elections are to be held before the end of the month, and who knows, with the right candidate, there might be more cycle lanes in the city in the very near future. Perhaps they’ll be built before the Bourgeois couple’s appeal is heard by the judges, and rejected.

She hopes it’ll happen soon. Saying that Paris is synonymous with chaos during rush hour is the understatement of the century. It is true of most big cities she knows, Tokyo also had its share of bad drivers, but they tended not to insult one another while hooting their horns. Marinette is particularly good at spotting these problem drivers, anticipating their reactions and avoiding them. While Kagami herself is still learning, she would say she’s gotten a decent grasp of that as well. Is that the sign that she’s become as much of a Parisian as she was a Tokyoite?

Mother’s initial concern when it came to buying her that bike is understandable, as much as she is loathe to admit it. Undoubtedly, riding a bike in Paris is a little risky. But by far not as aggravating as sitting in the car with no control over where she goes, waiting for traffic jams to solve themselves and for the doors to unlock themselves. Besides, Mother needs the vehicle much more than she does, her firm’s headquarters are in La Défense for now, though she has said that this might change soon if her expectations are met. In any case, Kagami can’t imagine her riding the métro, that’s a fate she wouldn’t wish on anyone. Well, maybe a few people, but most of them are either dead or in jail awaiting their trial.

It must be her lucky day. She isn’t made to stop by any red lights, there are no bad cyclists in front of her nor inconsiderate pedestrians she might crash into. She arrives on Boulevard Malesherbes and its line of poplar trees much faster than she had expected. After that, it’s only a matter of seconds before she spots her destination. The lycée Carnot blends in with the rest of the scenery easily, its buildings are, for the most part, very Hausmannian, with their use brick and stone. Kagami has yet to come inside, but she’s read about the courtyard designed by Gustave Eiffel. It’s so Parisian it’s almost a cliché, and yet not entirely devoid of charm.

Of course, the lycée’s reputation is excellent, its prestigious alumni are countless, writers, politicians and CEOs alike. No wonder both Mother and M. Agreste had planned on having her and Adrien go there. Then again, this isn’t one of these private schools that cost a small fortune each year, but a public lycée like many others. Most of the people here shouldn’t be the children of millionaires. It certainly doesn’t seem like it at first sight.

There’s already a rather large crowd gathered in front of the school’s entrance, friends reuniting after the summer, new students looking a little lost… Quite a few familiar faces, people from Françoise Dupont, including the drummer for the Couffaine sibling’s band, Juleka, her arm linked with Rose’s —someday she’ll be able to be like them — and a very downcast Chloé Bourgeois standing all on her own with her earphones on. No sign of Alya or Nino yet, nor of Marinette or anyone else she knows. Which was to be expected, it’s only… 7:44 a.m. or so her watch reads. She stops her chronometer with a slight smile. She could beat her previous record after all!

She spots a free cycle stand to lock her bike onto. Here’s to hoping that she’ll find it in one piece when she comes back from class after lunch when she goes back to the Sorbonne for M. D’Argencourt’s lessons. That will be a rather long ride, a good half hour at least. She checks her phone. Messages from Father (something generic and impersonal like the rare few texts he’s ever written her without being prompted to), Nino (“hey! can you check in what class I am?” it reads. “thanks a bunch!”), Alya (“Was it you on a bike at rue de Monceau?” followed by “Wait, don’t answer me now!!”) and Marinette (“on my way!”).

The problem with friends happy to find themselves reunited after months apart is that they tend not to be very aware of the space they occupy, or very considerate of the other people around them. Their enthusiasm certainly isn’t related to their being back to school, the chatter seems to be revolving around two things, telling one another about the holidays, and the latest exploits of Paris’s heroes. And indeed, few things could sound more heroic than Ladybug and Ryuko preventing what could have been a deadly fire from turning a students’ hostel in the 20th arrondissement into a pile of ashes.

It feels almost wrong to pat herself on the back, but Kagami has to say, the two of them were quite efficient, and the Dragon Miraculous’s air powers proved themselves to be the key to yesterday’s success. It wasn’t pleasant to do, almost frightening, even, but leaving the firefighters handle it alone would have lead to a disaster. No one was hurt, and this is what matters the most. Headlines about the state of housing in Paris’ poorest neighbourhood have been everywhere, even on the Lady Bugle’s website.

After a bit of eavesdropping, Kagami still has to carve herself a path through the crowd of fellow students if she wants to actually get inside the building and indeed check in what class she is supposed to be. At last, she reaches the large wooden boards on which sheets have been taped. So, she is in seconde, and all the names are in alphabetical order… She starts looking. Chloé Bourgeois will be in Seconde A with Alya, unfortunately, while Nino will be in Seconde B. As for Marinette… Yes! That’s quite a bit of luck! Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Kagami Tsurugi, in Seconde C, starting at 8:15 a.m. in room…

Once she is away from the board and able to actually move her arms without bumping into other people, Kagami answers her friends’ texts (“You will be in Seconde B, unfortunately not with Alya” to Nino, “It was me! I did not see you. Do you walk to school?” to Alya) and walks back towards the entrance. Olivier Duchêne from her fencing classes is here, laughing with his pack of friends, a cigarette in his mouth. Céline Mandi is there too with a few other Terminale students, she pretends not to recognise Kagami when she walks past her. Her phone buzzes in her pocket, which reminds her that she should probably turn that off for later. The message is from Marinette.

**7:49AM**

**Marinette:** _i love your shirt!_

That can only mean… She turns around with a grin and of course, her eyes meet her girlfriend’s. “Thank you!” she says clearly. “I commissioned it, the girl is incredibly talented, I could give you her number if you want!”

Ditching the twin tails for a ponytail has only made Marinette more beautiful, Kagami can’t help but think as she watches the girl lock her bike and put the key in her bag in a single swift gesture. Her high-waisted shorts and crop top are her own creation, of course, and they look flawless on her. Kagami’s glance falls on Marinette’s left wrist and her heart almost skips a bit. She’s wearing it, she’s truly wearing it! This shouldn’t make her this emotional, but still, even though they can’t be public about their relationship yet, she’s chosen to wear it and—

“Hey!” Marinette beams at her from across the street. “You’re here early!” she adds once she’s on the other side of the crosswalk. “And you noticed! I thought it’d look good with my outfit today… Or any outfit, really!”

“I’m glad you like it that much!” Kagami doesn’t bother hiding the smile in her voice when Marinette hugs her. “I missed you.”

“It’s only been a few hours,” Marinette chuckles. In a softer voice, she adds, “I missed you too.”

Finding the right thank-you gift for her wasn’t easy. No more potted plants (turning Marinette’s rooftop into a small garden isn’t necessarily a bad idea but there is such a thing as too many houseplants), no books (when would she have found the time to read them) and certainly not clothes (Marinette is too much of a perfectionist for prêt-à-porter). Kagami has to admit, jewellery had been the last thing on her mind until she passed by the window of that small shop. The bracelet, simple beads of rose quartz, may be the most nonmagical thing Marinette has worn in months. It fits her perfectly.

Alya arrives soon after that, followed by Nino. They both have a lot to share about their own holidays, Alya back in La Martinique at her grandparents’ house with her little sisters — there are still hints of the accent in the way she pronounces certain words — and Nino in the French Riviera with his father and brother. And to think that Kagami used to believe that small talk was useless and that she’d always need an app to help her… It’s nice to see them again and to see that they are well. They may not be talking about anything profound, but they are having an agreeable conversation all the same, and that matters just as much.

All good things must end at some point, and when a shrill-sounding voice comes from loudspeakers, asking them all to go to their respective classrooms, the four friends have to part ways. In the blink of an eye, the lycée’s corridors get packed, accompanied with the squeaky sound of rubber soles against linoleum and constant chatter. Calling it disorderly would be too kind. At least Marinette stays close to her and there are no horns for students to hoot.

Their classroom is on the second floor, with a view on the courtyard they were in earlier and now that it has emptied itself, Kagami can tell that they were standing on the basketball court. That’s a new sport she could try. She may be on the smaller side, but her footwork is fairly great, meeting new people and making new friends wouldn’t be so bad… And it looks like she’ll have a good twenty-or-so fellow pupils to get acquainted with this year. Mother won’t approve of any of them, and that should be a good sign.

Their form teacher, a diminutive, grey-haired woman dressed in a beige cardigan, arrives with a faint tired sigh just as Marinette finds them two seats next to one another. Almost immediately, the chatter dies down, phones are put away and the few people that had sat down stand up as the professor puts a rather massive pile of sheets on her desk, and then another, another, and another one still. So that’s the French administration she was warned about. She has done well to bring all these empty folders. Even though they’re closer to the front of the class, neither she nor Marinette can tell what is printed on any of these forms, there are other students blocking their line of sight.

“Alright,” the teacher says. “Before we get started, I will call everyone’s names and you’ll answer, walk to me and pick up your timetables and the rest of your documents. Arnoux, Martin?”

“Here!” the boy in question says, and walks to the desk.

“Ayouch, Leila?”

Marinette gets called fairly early on and returns with an impressive bundle documents she immediately proceeds to fill out and put in a large folder. Kagami prepares herself to do the same. There are too many students after that for her to keep track of, there will be time for that, though she recognises faces every now and then. There’s that one shy-looking white boy with red hair, Natha-something Kurtzberg, she’s seen once or twice though she couldn’t recall what he was called before it was his turn to retrieve his timetable. It should be her turn soon, they have reached “S”.

_Busy timetable_ , she writes on a piece of blank paper she slides to Marinette. _But you expected that, no?_

_Not worse than last year_ , Marinette scribbles back. _Sleepover after tonight’s patrol?_

_I love you,_ Kagami writes.

Éloïse Tomasetto returns to her seat.

“Tsurugi, Kagami?”

All eyes are on her, and whispers start filling the classroom.

Marinette gives her hand a small squeeze under the table.

Everything will be alright. She might stumble from time to time but she will be alright.

“Here!” Kagami answers without hesitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for sticking with me until the very end.
> 
> This was a joy to write and share with you all, and reading your comments week after week often made my day. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this fic as much as I enjoyed writing it, I really do.
> 
> Oh, and if you're curious about these sorts of things, I posted a sort of long "behind the scenes" post on Tumblr [ here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com/post/637708324318691328/porter-sur-toi-un-nouveau-regard-basic-outlines)!
> 
> With all of that said, thank you once again for making it to the end of this fic!


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